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THE STUDY OF 
THE ENGLISH BIBLE 



BY 

LOUIS MATTHEWS SWEET, M.A., S.T.D. 

M 

PROFESSOR OF CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY AND APOLOGETICS 

IN THE BIBLE TEACHERS TRAINING SCHOOL 

NEW YORK CITY 



Association: $fre££ 

New York: 124 East 28th Street 

London: 47 Paternoster Row, E.C. 

1914 






Copyright, 1914, bt 

The International Committee op 

Young Men's Christian Associations 



MAY I2-J'9J4 



/ 



/ &* 



) CI,A3740~,2 



To 
WILBERT WEBSTER WHITE, Ph.D., D.D., 

Pioneer and Master 

in THE 

Study and Teaching of the English Bible 

this book, written in furtherance of the cause to which 
his life is devoted, is affectionately dedicated. 



* This light that strikes his eye-ball is not light, 
This air that smites his forehead is not air, 
But vision** 



PREFACE 

The following pages embody the results 
of an earnest attempt to apply the elemen- 
tary principles of the study -process as 
ordinarily understood to the English Bible. 
The book is nothing more and nothing 
else than this. The explanation and justi- 
fication of a discussion so rigidly confined 
to the sphere of method, are to be sought 
in the peculiar situation in which we find 
ourselves. In view of this situation it is 
offered without misgiving or apology. 

It is generally conceded that we have 
fallen upon evil days as regards the popular 
knowledge and use of the Bible. In many 
respects our greatest book is as much lost 
to the people as in the days preceding the 
discovery of the "book of the law" in the 
reign of Josiah. 

The most serious element in this painful 
situation is that it is really without excuse. 
The progressive loss of popular interest in 
the Bible has proceeded coincidently with 
general advance in popular education, and, 
specifically, in Biblical Science. It has 



PREFACE 



gone on in the face of the fact that a trained 
body of specialists, impressive both in num- 
bers and personnel, exists among us whose 
task it is to teach the Bible. It has gone 
on in spite of the fact that the Bible is 
humanity's chief literary asset and the most 
interesting book in the world. It is the 
firm conviction of the writer, based upon 
observation and experience, that the con- 
spicuous and lamentable failure to keep the 
Bible in its rightful place is due, primarily, to 
a wrong method of studying and teaching it. 

On the one hand what is known as 
" scholarship" has considered the English 
Bible beneath its notice and has conse- 
quently lost its way in details of learning 
which have not been rightly correlated to 
the mastery and presentation of the Bible 
as a whole and in its wholeness, which are 
the only conditions of effectiveness. 

On the other hand, students and teachers 
of the English Bible have too much neg- 
lected the necessity of acquiring an exact 
and scientific method and applying it with 
industry and precision to their abundant 
materials. Hence scholars and popular 
teachers have worked at cross-purposes 

vi 






PREFACE 



with each other, while both classes alike 
have failed to grasp the fundamental truth 
that details of information, however inter- 
esting to the specialist, remain mere frag- 
ments until they are seen in relationship 
and that the field of popular interest is always 
occupied by the larger unities of related facts. 
This conviction, that the tap-root of our 
troubles, which are both intellectual and 
spiritual, is an inefficient method of dealing 
with the Bible, is so deeply fixed in the mind 
of the writer, that, in the present work, every 
consideration has been sacrificed, often at 
the cost of no little self-denial, to the exposi- 
tion of method. 

If in any way this discussion shall con- 
tribute to the establishment of a better 
method, and aid in the great work, to which 
many hands more skilful must contribute, 
of placing the study of the English Bible 
where it belongs in the estimation of those 
who are entrusted with the responsibility 
of teaching the coming generations, the 
purpose of its writing will be fully realized. 

Finis opus coronat. 

Louis Matthews Sweet. 

March 9, 1914. 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Preface v 

I. Study and the Bible 1 

II. The Organization of the Student 

Life 23 

III. The Study of Biblical Words 46 

IV. Structural Study of the Bible 71 

V. The Study of the Bible by Books 96 

VI. The Study of the Bible by Histor- 
ical Periods 126 

Appendix: 

A. "Intensive and Cumulative" 
Study . 157 

B. Jehovah and Holiness — Word 
Studies 160 

C. Colossians I: 9-23; A Study in 
Grammatical Analysis. 167 

D. The Contextual Study of Mat- 
thew I-IV 172 

E. Illustrative Outline Study of the 
Book of Acts 175 

F. Study of the Gospel of Mark on 
the Basis of Sequences in Its Con- 
struction 181 

G. Studies of Job and Philippians 

— Types of Book Analysis 191 

H. An Outline Course of Bible Study 

in Twenty-six Lessons 197 

I. The Use of Books in Bible Study . 206 
J. A Hint as to the Proper Use of a 

Concordance 212 



THE STUDY OF THE 
ENGLISH BIBLE 

I 

STUDY AND THE BIBLE 
This book aspires to perform nothing 
more than the minor and humbly useful 
function of a gateway. It invites to a look 
beyond itself, to a goal of awakened inter- 
est, as a gateway, rightly placed and mod- 
estly adorned, proclaims not its own beauty, 
but the beauty of orchard, lawn or mansion 
which it makes accessible. We desire to 
proclaim at the outset — to sing, so to speak 
— the importance, value and perennial 
charm of Bible study. It ought not to be 
difficult to win adherents to a form of 
activity so demonstrably attractive, but it 
is not so easy as it seems. The trouble is, 
not that there is not a charming demesne 
within the gate, but that the passerby often 
positively declines to be allured. The word 
"study" itself is so forbidding that he can- 
not so much as imagine anything of satis- 
faction connected with it. Study is work, 
and the human race has developed a ten- 

1 



THE STUDY OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE 

dency which has become inveterate, to seek 
the joys of life apart from the sphere of 
work. 

" Surely, surely slumber is more sweet than toil, 
the shore 
Than labor in the deep mid-ocean, wind and wave 
and oar." 

This is not the voice of life or of truth 
but of delusion and a poisonous drug. The 
finest flavors of life are tasted only by the 
workers, and by them in the very act and 
energy of toil. To work is to live and to 
rejoice in living. 

What I wish at this point to assert with 
unequivocal plainness of speech is that, 
while there is zest in all honest labor, there 
is a peculiar delight in that form of labor 
which is ordinarily termed "study/ 5 I 
venture this challenge — to arrest and turn 
the feet of the passer-by toward that which 
this book attempts to introduce: Of all 
human occupations, vocations, avocations 
and recreations included in the survey, the 
most compelling and controlling in the inten- 
sity and permanency of its fascination is 
study. No one who has been seized in the 
grip of the felt delight of intense and pro- 
12 



STUDY AND THE BIBLE 



longed mental application has ever won free 
from it. 

There are, to be sure, preliminary diffi- 
culties to be overcome, innate laxities of 
mind and will to be hardened by self-dis- 
cipline into habits of sustained and per- 
sistent industry, uninteresting elementary 
drudgeries, sometimes prolonged, to be 
endured, which make the early years of 
study thorny to the most — but when the 
necessary habits are actually formed, and 
these inescapable preliminaries are mastered 
and out of the way, then the constant in- 
crease of mastery brings as constant in- 
crease of zest and joy in learning. It is 
a paradox, but also an undoubted fact, that 
study is the most difficult and most de- 
lightful of all human activities. 

One other urgent note would I add to this 
call to the passer-by to look within the 
gate — that, of all study, the most delightful 
is the study of the Bible. "Oh!" you say 
at once, "here is the voice of the special 
pleader urging his favorite occupation upon 
us." Undoubtedly, but is it not worth 
while to ask why one is a special pleader? 
He has done other work than study, full 



THE STUDY OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE 

enough to know the zest of it; and other 
study than that of the Bible — hence, his 
feeling about the preeminent charm of 
Bible study has not been arrived at without 
comparison. "I have believed, therefore 
have I spoken." At any rate, waiving for 
a time the question of superlatives, let us 
guide the student past a preliminary ob- 
stacle, often fatal to advance in this direc- 
tion, by pointing out the fact, that what the 
Bible has to give in the way of interest and 
inspiration, it offers only to one who is 
willing to work. The exposition of this 
fact will carry us at once into the midst of 
our subject, and will suggest many things 
which we shall wish to study through to- 
gether. 

There are, broadly speaking, with refer- 
ence to the Bible, two states of mind, that 
of fascinated enthusiasm, and, in contrast, 
that of unawakened indifference. These 
two states of mind may be otherwise desig- 
nated, without appreciable shifting of the 
boundaries already set up, as belonging 
respectively to those who have studied the 
Bible and those who have not. It is evi- 
dent that the distinction between the inter- 

4 




STUDY AND THE BIBLE 



ested and the uninterested, running down 
to its root in study or the lack of it, has a 
wide application to subjects other than the 
Bible. The popular notion is that study 
is the result of interest. There is undoubted 
truth in this opinion. It is one of the high 
privileges of the teacher's office to awaken 
interest and thus stimulate to study. It 
often happens that a truly inspiring teacher, 
in one brief session, may open to a student 
the meaning and charm of poetry, of art, 
or of science, and thus kindle an interest 
which furnishes the motive for lifelong 
study. It is also true, and the truth is of 
immense practical importance, that interest 
is the outgrowth of study. Many have 
become vitally interested in subjects which 
they have been compelled, by necessity of 
one kind or another, to investigate. Our 
educational system is based upon the idea 
that even enforced study has an inherent 
tendency to awaken interest. We expect 
it to lead on to the free and untrammeled 
choice of student life because of its interest 
and charm. Often the undertaking fails, 
perhaps because it has not fairly been tried, 
but often it does not. 

5 



THE STUDY OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE 

Moreover, in a broad sense, men are 
interested in what they know about, even 
when the knowledge has been forced upon 
them. Phillips Brooks has said: "It is 
always strange to us to find people entirely 
ignorant of what makes the whole interest 
of our own life." (" Sermons," ed. 1893, 
Vol. ii, p. 217.) It is, however, just as 
strange to find people interested in what 
concerns us not. A so-called "bore" is 
often not a man who is innately and con- 
genially dull and stupid, but simply one 
who insists upon talking about subjects in 
which he is interested and we are not. It is 
fatally easy to become a bore on such terms, 
if we talk at all. But if we ask the ques- 
tion, why do men become interested in such 
unaccountable things (and any library list 
will furnish an illuminating commentary 
on the variety of human interests) a 
widely applicable answer is that circum- 
stances have compelled a study which has 
conformed the mind to specific tendencies 
and started definite and permanent cur- 
rents of interest. 

One may also say, without fear of con- 
tradiction, that absorbing intellectual in- 

6 



STUDY AND THE BIBLE 



terest in any of the deeper and higher 
concerns of human life is absolutely con- 
ditioned upon laborious processes of study. 
I question whether any one was ever in- 
terested in literature, in any department of 
science, or in any form of art, except at the 
cost of prolonged application, often set 
grievously against the grain of inclination. 
The most cherished interests of life to those 
who are acquainted with them are thus 
hedged and barricaded w r ith difficulties to 
test the temper of all candidates for par- 
ticipation in them. In this secondary and 
accommodated sense it is true that the 
Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence and 
the violent take it by force. 

These remarks are peculiarly applicable 
to the Bible for the reason that the Bible 
does not disclose its significance or uncover 
its beauties to the merely casual reader. 
One need not depreciate the "fascination 
of the book," nor be unmindful of the high 
estimate placed upon the Bible, as litera- 
ture by those competent to judge, in order 
to be convinced that it is not the book for 
the literary saunterer. The Bible is pre- 
eminently a book which demands and 



THE STUDY OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE 

repays study. Like all great literature, it 
is, in essence, timeless and universal, but, 
in form, it is ancient and Oriental. This 
means that for us its treasures of thought 
and expression are concealed beneath a 
crust of strangeness. The gold must be 
mined and beaten from the rock. It is 
so rich and abundant in the raw materials 
of art that it has become the very golden 
heart of more than one great literature; but 
these riches are, for the most part, hidden 
from those who merely read. Its finest 
allusions, its most surprising and appealing 
felicities of expression, its most delicate 
shades of meaning are, oftentimes, con- 
cealed in an ancient and forgotten custom, 
an unfamiliar fact of Oriental geography, 
or a figure of speech belonging to another 
age and civilization than our own. Once 
understood, such an allusion becomes a 
thing of beauty and a joy forever; unknown, 
it is simply a rough obstacle against which 
the mind stumbles and bruises itself. 

Another fact: the Bible, as various and 
complex as it is, covering a full millennium 
in its literary history, and representing 
many contrasted phases of personal and 

8 



STUDY AND THE BIBLE 



national history, finds its center in its per- 
vading spiritual character. It is so pre- 
eminently religious throughout that it is 
naturally "caviare" to the unspiritual 
mind. It is doubtful, therefore, whether 
the Bible, considered solely as literature, 
appealing to refined taste and easily stirred 
superficial interests, is suited permanently 
to hold its own. It will be read in propor- 
tion as it is studied. 

I shall adduce, finally, in support of this 
contention, which will probably seem to 
many both dangerous and illogical, two 
considerations which, on the surface, appear 
to point to an opposite conclusion. What 
of the many who, without critical apparatus 
or approved methods of study, have found 
delight in reading the Bible? The answer 
is not difficult. These are students of the 
Book. There is no hard and fast line be- 
tween "reading" and "studying." Per- 
sistent reading and re-reading, alert and 
eager quest for light and truth which con- 
tinually brings forth new meanings from 
familiar words, is study in the highest sense. 
No great book can be studied with the intel- 
lect alone, and no critical apparatus nor 

9 



THE STUDY OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE 

acquired aptitude of mind is a substitute 
for that genuine heart-interest which impels 
to persistent and unflagging search for 
fresh and vital apprehensions. It is indeed 
wonderful, often, to see what clear and com- 
prehensive — one had almost said "scien- 
tific" — grasp of the Bible, as a whole and 
in its general truth and meaning, many an 
untrained mind has gained under the sway 
of this spiritual motive. The heart often- 
times makes the student. 

But, granting this, what is to be made of 
the class of unspiritual students of the 
Bible? Undoubtedly, there has been a 
considerable class of lifelong, eager, tireless 
Bible students who could not be called, by 
any stretch of the mantle of charity, 
spiritually minded. They are students pure 
and simple, and their work has been motived 
solely, so far as one can judge from their 
own testimony, by the intellectual interest. 
What does this fact mean? Merely this, 
that the Bible as an object of study is of 
compelling interest even to those who do 
not regard it as a book of the heart, or of 
the religious life. The simple fact of the 
matter is that the Bible is so great on all/ 

10 



STUDY AND THE BIBLE 



. its sides and in all of its dimensions, in the 
j stimulus it affords to the imagination, as 
well as the comfort it speaks to the soul; in 
the problems it presents to the intellect, 
as well as the answers it speaks to the heart, 
as to make it to one who is willing to study 
with patience and persistence an unfailing 
mental stimulus. We may, therefore, un- 
hesitatingly class the Bible with those great 
books of the world which require study 
adequately to be appreciated. In planning 
to deal with the Bible we gird ourselves for 
a tasKi. 

We ought, first of all, to gain some insight 
into the process of study as such. In 
order to do this, it is necessary, even at the 
risk of being tedious and unpleasantly ele- 
mentary, to identify and distinguish the 
separate elements which enter into it. 

In all study, there are three primary and 
indispensable movements of the mind. To 
these three a fourth is added in certain cases 
where it is appropriate and admissible. 

1. The first of these movements is a 
general survey for purposes of identification. 
A certain amount of general information is 
the necessary preliminary to all specific and 

11 



THE STUDY OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE 

thorough study. Every scientific treatise 
begins with definition, which is an identifi- 
cation of the subject by marking out its 
limits. I take up a book at random as it 
lies on my desk, and read as the first sen- 
tence of the actual treatise: "Metaphysics 
is the science of being." (Snowden — "The 
World a Spiritual System," p. 1.) In this 
way an author attempts to make it per- 
fectly clear to us just exactly what he is 
to discuss. But notice, he cannot define 
so closely as not to make requisition upon 
knowledge, in his readers, which he does 
not pause to impart. Thus, in his several 
pages of definition, Dr. Snowden does not 
anywhere specifically define "being" except 
by the substitution of the term "reality" 
(p. 3) for it, and a little later, the partial 
identification of the term "reality" with 
the term "world" (p. 20). He therefore 
takes for granted our general knowledge of 
what is ordinarily meant by the terms 
"being," "reality," "world," "science." 

A writer must necessarily leave some 
matters to which he refers unexplained, else 
his treatise would never end. In every 
field of study a sweeping glance which 1 

12 



STUDY AND THE BIBLE 



identifies the subject in a general way pre- 
cedes all more specific and minute attention. 
A geographical description begins with the 
name, the location, and the boundaries of 
the country which is to be studied. An 
historical discussion must specify the coun- 
try and the period which are to be treated. 
The famous sentence with which Macaulay 
begins his history is an illustration in point : 
"I purpose to write the history of England 
from the accession of King James the 
Second down to a time which is within the 
memory of men still living.' ' This is noth- 
ing more than definition, the marking out 
of a field to be entered and studied in detail. 
Many searching and preliminary questions 
might here be suggested but are passed over 
in order to give point and emphasis to one 
single consideration of primary importance. 
No student can fail to observe that the Bible 
is one of the world's great facts, a manifold 
and complex reality which may be viewed 
from many angles and studied on many 
sides. It is the part of wisdom, therefore, 
not to allow one's prepossessions to harden 
into cramping and blinding prejudices, but 
to approach the Bible with the fixed deter- 

13 



THE STUDY OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE 

mination to see it as it is and to let it tell 
its own story. Seldom, indeed, does it get 
the chance to do this, but how surprisingly 
does it work its magic when once it is thus 
set free. How evidently absurd our pre- 
judgments often are. How absurd, for ex- 
ample, inasmuch as the Bible is undoubt- 
edly one of the "sacred books of the East," 
for me to determine that it is this and 
nothing more. It may be a unique sacred 
book, and if so, I ought to know it. 

On the other hand, even though I am 
sure that it is God's Book, need I ignore or 
belittle the fact that it may also be man's 
Book, and that, since men spake as they 
were moved by the Holy Ghost, the revela- 
tion given through them may vary with the 
capacity of the inspired, and may grow 
from less to greater, and from greater to 
greatest, along the highway of divinely 
inspired progress? These alternatives are 
at least possible. Let the student approach 
the Scriptures with a sheaf of honest ques- 
tions and interrogate the Bible itself, and 
never fear that honest answers will not be 
given. Any one of the questions enu- 
merated above would form a line of special 

14 



STUDY AND THE BIBLE 



study of the Bible itself. What is the place 
of the Bible among the "sacred books of the 
East"; among other Hebrew and Christian 
books? Did chance or Providence draw the 
line of canonicity around the sacred volume? 
All these questions, the Bible itself, if 
allowed the chance, will answer in no un- 
certain way. These questions do not belong 
exclusively to the realm of special scholar- 
ship, inasmuch as the chief factor in answer- 
ing any one of them is the witness of the 
Bible to itself, which witness is within the 
reach of every thoughtful and persistent 
student. 

2. The second movement in study is an- 
alysis. The student who, at first, has noth- 
ing at his disposal except the most general 
of notions as to the limits and confines of his 
subject, and the nature of the facts which 
make it up, must undertake the task of 
distinguishing details, in order to the recog- 
nition of specific facts. The analytical 
survey of the Bible as it is ordinarily printed 
gives us these apparently commonplace, 
but really significant items: It consists of 
two large divisions called "Testaments," 
and sixty-six smaller divisions called 

15 



THE STUDY OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE 

"Books." The books are divided into 
"chapters/ 5 and the chapters into " verses. " 
It is at once evident that the last two divi- 
sions are not essential items of structure, 
but are artificial, due to the use of Scrip- 
ture as a book of reference. Underneath 
these divisions we find the ordinary gram- 
matical divisions of paragraphs and sen- 
tences, while at tKe bottom ot the entire 
structure, as ultimate factors of its con- 
stitution, are words. 

We have, therefore, as the result of a 
superficial analysis, these subjects of special 
study, two groups of books, paragraphs, 
sentences, words. A closer analysis at 
once discloses that, in addition to this 
grammatical structure, which is common to 
all parts of the Bible, there are clearly 
recognized forms of literary structure, prose 
and poetry, songs, stories, orations, letters, 
dramas, histories, biographies, indeed, all 
the forms and modes of composition known 
to literature. Combining the results of 
this twofold analysis, we have the following 
formal subjects of study: Books; structure, 
both grammatical and literary, which in- 

16 



STUDY AND THE BIBLE 



eludes incorporated documents and sources; 
words. 

It is, of course, manifest that such an 
analytical partition does not afford a sys- 
tem of mutually exclusive subjects for study. 
One cannot study a book, for example, 
without regard to its literary and grammat- 
ical structure, or without careful study of 
its characteristic words and phrases. On 
the other hand, words cannot be studied 
thoroughly apart from their uses in sen- 
tences, paragraphs, and books. But book 
study differs from other study in that the 
focus of its attention is the book as a con- 
crete entity. Whatever attention is paid 
to words, or paragraphs, or other details of 
formation, is for the purpose of exhib- 
iting and illustrating the character and 
quality of the book as such. In word 
study, individual words, their derivation, 
their language connections, and the phrases 
of meaning through which they have passed 
in the history of the language to which they 
belong, occupy the attention. 

In structural study, again, the center of 
attention is shifted to the organic units into 
which words are built up in the expression 

17 



TEE STUDY OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE 

of thought. These units are: First, gram- 
matical, that is, sentences which express 
single thoughts; paragraphs, which are 
connected series of thoughts on a single 
theme; and, second, literary, the specific and 
conventionally established modes of expres- 
sion which the human mind has framed for 
itself as being appropriate to certain classes 
of ideas and emotions. 

It will be seen, therefore, that the clue 
for the student here is the idea, the single 
idea expressed in the sentence or line; the 
train or movement of ideas as sentence fol- 
lows sentence, and line is added to line; the 
expression of a theme as the thought reaches 
a relative stage of completion in the para- 
graph, poem, or narrative. 

3. This statement leads us to the third 
movement of the mind in study, which is 
synthesis, the recognition and building up of 
unities. Analysis, applied to literature, and 
consistently carried out, leaves one in the 
presence of the disparted members of the 
grammatical and literary structure, the 
separate word forms which are the raw 
materials — the nails and lumber of the mind. 
But just as soon as one begins to deal with 

18 



STUDY AND THE BIBLE 



wholes of thought, in structural study, he 
has begun the upward movement in the 
ascending scale of unities. From words we 
pass to sentences in which words are com- 
bined, to paragraphs in which sentences are 
combined, to books, and finally to the Bible 
as a whole. This is a book of books, in 
which all upward lines along the unities 
ultimately converge. 

Mastery of the Bible would be the recov- 
ery, by analysis, through synthesis, of the 
whole Bible, which, at the beginning of 
study, is but vaguely recognized, in outline 
or profile, as an object seen at a distance in 
the landscape of the mind, but is now illu- 
mined and thrown into heightened relief by 
new knowledge of its component parts and 
new grasp of its significance as a whole. 
The steady and progressive advance through 
details to a new and organized unity of 
grasp is the ideal course of study. To the 
accomplishment of this task the earnest 
student should set himself. 

4. The advance to more and more com- 
prehensive unities may issue in a thesis; that 
is, a generalization which embraces all the 
facts which have been surveyed. For exam- 

19 



THE STUDY OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE 

pie, the statement, that bodies in space at- 
tract each other directly as the masses and 
inversely as the squares of the distances, is 
a thesis. It is an ultimate expression of 
the significance of a vast number of related 
facts. This is the final outcome of any given 
process of study, and is not always possible. 
In strict logic one should delay in laying 
down theses until the process of study is 
complete. But actually the process of study 
is never complete, and the mind of man can 
hardly hope to canvass all the facts, even 
in one restricted field; moreover, the mind is 
greatly aided in study by anticipatory gen- 
eralizations (hypotheses), the truth of which 
is put to the test in investigations. Many 
generalizations are matters of faith, based, 
to be sure, upon experiment and observation, 
but applied to vast ranges of facts which lie 
beyond the reach of experiment. Each 
stage of advancing study may be expected 
to contribute general results, which, in turn, 
will lead one to more advanced conditions 
of mastery. By this process of sifting and 
summarizing facts, knowledge leads to true 
insight, and the resultant insight leads to 

20 



STUDY AND THE BIBLE 



greater and more perfectly organized knowl- 
edge. 

The mastery of the Bible in any final 
and absolute sense is an impossible goal, 
inasmuch as, in its narrowest dimensions, 
it is too vast for the compass of any human 
life; but it is of the utmost practical moment 
to keep the conception of ultimate mastery 
of the Bible, as a whole, as an ideal whose 
steady flame lights every step of our way. 

And it is to be remembered that, since the 
Bible is a book which is also a body of 
literature, the pathway to mastery lies 
through the plain meaning of the letter. 
It is not in this sense that the letter killeth, 
but the spirit maketh alive. Doubtless it 
is fatal to stay in the letter, but go through 
the letter we must, for, whatever ranges of 
spiritual meaning, accessible only to those 
led and taught of the Spirit, there may be, 
they lie behind and within the written 
Book. This Book must be mastered form- 
ally before it can be mastered ideally. It is 
necessary to tarry, at least for a time, in the 
House of Interpreter, on the way to the City 
Celestial. This being true, the structure of 
the Bible, as a book, the literary expression 

21 



THE STUDY OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE 

of a given group of related ideas, is a key to 
the meaning of it. The treasure is locked 
in a casket of human words, and the nature 
of the casket determines the method of 
unlocking it. By an orderly and persistent 
process of acquiring the meaning of words, 
of literary forms, figures, and expressions, 
so far as the intellect goes, and in the 
measure of our time, nothing of essential 
moment can escape us. In these obvious 
facts of structure, the outline of a progressive 
method of study, into which the results of a 
lifetime of earnest work may be gathered 
and kept, is securely framed and imbedded. 
These dictate and constitute the one natural 
and inevitable method of study. 



22 



II 

ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDENT LIFE. 

In the preceding chapter we have outlined 
a plan of study which, if followed out, must 
sooner or later bring the mind into contact 
with the objective body of facts which we 
call the Bible. 

The persistent study of books will finally 
carry one through the entire sixty-six. The 
study of words, seriatim, will one day make 
our catalogue relatively complete. So is 
it with poems, groups of books, historical 
periods. The number of these is not infinite. 
In the course of time they can be gone over. 
The extent of the field of study is definite 
and ascertainable. On the other hand, 
intensively, the Bible cannot be thus meted 
out and bounded. Exhaustive study of any 
portion of it, to say nothing of the whole, 
touches upon the infinite. 

Indeed, it is doubtful whether we know 

the meaning of exhaustive study in any 

field, or have any right to use the word as 

descriptive of our human endeavors. I 

3 23 



THE STUDY OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE 

have read of a group of English scientists 
who formed the project of studying "ex- 
haustively" a square yard of turf. The un- 
dertaking was finally abandoned because of 
its unmanageable magnitude. 

It is a commonplace but also a great truth 
that "art is long and time is fleeting. " The 
study of the Bible in any adequate sense, 
which contemplates any accurate and bal- 
anced relationship between range and depth 
of study, calls not only for lifelong consecra- 
tion, but for intelligent and thoughtful 
planning. Herein lies the theme for our 
discussion in the present section. The 
problem is, how to fit such a plan of study 
into the scheme of a busy and active life, 
with its absorbing details and its minute 
subdivision of time. 

The fatal flaw in most plans and methods 
of work is that they are not carried out. 
What elaborate and scientific schemes for 
amassing wealth, in the shape of facts, have 
I not seen go to ruin, not because they were 
unworkable, but because they were not 
worked! A method of study is only a 
guide to work. After the plan is made, 
the work remains to be done. 

24 



ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDENT LIFE 

It would seem not inappropriate here to 
point out that plans of study usually go 
awry because they are not definitely and 
organically related to the program of life as 
a whole. That there is something wrong 
with the intellectual life of the average 
teacher, religious and otherwise, no one who 
is at all conversant with the facts can 
possibly doubt. This is unhappily true in a 
great measure of the academic teaching 
force as well as of men in the pastorate and 
of laymen whose duty and privilege it is to 
teach. I have been told, by a leading 
teacher with a wide clerical acquaintance, 
that the graduates of that particular insti- 
tution who are really "doing anything" in 
an intellectual way form an almost negligi- 
ble minority. An unusually intelligent lay- 
man, a teacher in the Sunday school, said 
to me not long ago: "I have not read a 
book in I do not know when." It is a 
practically universal fact that the majority 
of men who are engaged in the active work 
of Christian leadership, both as clerical and 
lay workers, are living on the accumulation 
of student days and openly lament the 
decay of their student life. 

25 



THE STUDY OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE 

What is the difficulty? It is not that 
these men do not, in the aggregate, read and 
study a great deal. The great lack in the 
lives of most teachers and religious workers 
who ought to be students is a comprehensive 
plan of study which unifies the student life. 
Vast stores of valuable energy are wasted 
in sporadic and desultory study which lacks 
unity, consecutiveness, and progressive 
value. How many public men of our 
acquaintance are marked men as knowing 
some subject thoroughly and well? How 
many men among these same supposed 
leaders of thought are able at call to dip 
from their accumulated stores a really 
effective address on any book or passage of 
Scripture? As a matter of fact, many, if 
not most, of these leaders and teachers 
would have to confess that men of the 
Bible, as they are supposed to be, they do 
not know it and do not know how to deal 
with it in effective exposition. In a multi- 
tude of cases their only salvation as public 
speakers is to get away from any chosen 
passage as soon as possible into the vague, 
safe region of pious generalities. May I 
also say, by way of emphasis, that these are 

26 



ORGANIZATION OF TEE STUDENT LIFE 

not random remarks, but are the essential 
distillation of many actual personal con- 
fessions. 

The difficulty is not, as many allege, the 
lack of time; it is the lack of coordination 
in the use of time. This failure is evident 
even in the lives of men whose opportunity 
and leisure for study are great. The late 
President Harper of Chicago University 
has said: "It is probable that the time of 
the summer vacation is largely wasted by 
from sixty to seventy per cent of the teach- 
ers in our colleges and universities." 
("Trend in Higher Education," p. 90.) He 
continues: "The long summer vacation is in 
the case of teachers intended, not for rest, 
but for work, and yet it may fairly be said 
that the percentage I have named utterly 
waste it, so far as any tangible results are 
concerned" (ibid., p. 91). 

If the pastor or parish worker is inclined 
to retort that no such long vacation is at 
his disposal, he is to be reminded that he has 
the advantage of the teacher, who works on 
a regular schedule of hours, in having or in 
being able to have his mornings at his dis- 
posal. There is time enough for all neces- 

27 



THE STUDY OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE 

sary work if it is only used. There is no 
lack of examples either in literature, art, 
or industry to show what vast results may 
be accomplished in the combination of 
minute increments of labor with a com- 
prehensive plan. Brick by brick the great 
building is constructed; letter by letter the 
great book is written; just as in nature, cell 
by cell, the great tree grows. 

Men habitually waste more time than 
would really be needed for a noble life work 
in the acquisition and expression of knowl- 
edge if only the uncounted odds and ends of 
time were saved and used. The maker of 
mosaics may build his wonderful pictures 
out of the fragments of material cast to the 
void by other workers. 

Waste of time and effort in the brief life 
of a student and teacher is monstrous and 
appalling. It ought not to be and it need 
not be. All that is necessary is to put our 
intelligence at work upon the task of organ- 
izing life as a whole. Every day which is 
related to other days in a scheme of living 
which binds all together and brings them 
to a focus upon a foreseen purpose has a 
double value, that which belongs to itself 

28 



ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDENT LIFE 

and that which it gains from the others. 
Every bit of work which is part of a con- 
tinuous process moving toward a foreseen 
end to which many items contribute gains 
the same enhancement of value by incor- 
poration into that which is great enough to 
lend greatness to all its parts. A pillar in 
a temple is not merely a pillar; it is a part 
of the temple. 

Now, to do this kind of work, in such a way 
that proportion, in the breadth and depth 
of the work done, and orderly progression 
are maintained, calls for the definite organi- 
zation of the student life so that every 
moment of industry may contribute to the 
foreseen issue and result of it as a whole. 
Why should not an intelligent man, with 
important work on his hands, plan his life, 
as an architect plans a building, in such a 
way that every spadeful of earth which is 
turned, every stone which is cut, every 
beam which is shaped, fits into its place 
and contributes to the result? 

A building is not a fortuitous jumble of 
parts standing out of relationship, but an 
orderly construction which embodies in its 
unified complexity a great group of ideas. 



THE STUDY OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE 

The relationship of the parts gives them 
enhanced meaning through the idea which 
jointly, not singly, they express. 

A life lived in the fufilment of a plan, 
unified in the pursuance of a purpose, is not 
a calendar of days, each one of which dis- 
appears as the next takes its place. It is 
not a list of unrelated acts. It is a great 
edifice into which the days and the acts of 
life are built and in which they remain. 

1. The first necessity in the process of 
unifying life is to organize it on general lines 
so as to escape the tyranny of specific tasks. 
The meaning of this possibly somewhat ob- 
scure statement is this : Many preachers and 
teachers of undoubted power are hopelessly 
desultory and aimless in their work because 
they are always absorbed in unrelated 
specific tasks. They never study in the 
organized and continuous way which pro- 
duces results, because they are helpless 
captives of the passing moment. They 
are always preparing for next Sunday's ser- 
mon or next Wednesday's address. There 
is no time in such a system for orderly and 
progressive mastery of any great subjects, 
simply because life is lived, intellectually, 

80 



ORGANIZATION OF TEE STUDENT LIFE 

from hand to mouth in a constant and 
unsuccessful attempt to get beyond the 
pressure of stated or occasional duties. 
Progressive impoverishment and ultimate 
mental bankruptcy are the Nemesis of this 
method. 

When a man, who, by every implication 
of his professional position, is pledged to a 
life of study, does no continuous study, 
masters no department of knowledge, has 
nothing in possession except unrelated items 
of superficial information, he is a contradic- 
tion, and his defeat and downfall are certain. 
Such a career is inevitable to the man who 
spends his study time in the fragmentary 
studies which are directed toward prepara- 
tion for immediate and pressing public- 
obligations. 

The first step therefore in his emanci- 
pation is to fence off and keep sacred to 
constructive general work, irrespective of im- 
mediate obligations, a portion of time. On 
the basis of personal experience I am pre- 
pared to say that, in the long run, any 
man will preach better and teach better 
who will give three-fourths of his study 
time to this general, continuous, cumula- 

31 



THE STUDY OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE 

tive work which has absolutely no foreseen 
bearing upon his next public appearance. 

It will take courage to cut loose from the 
old method — but the outcome is not in 
doubt. Out of a full mind, enriched by 
increasingly wide cultural studies, one will 
speak with undreamed-of freedom and power. 
Great sermons and addresses are always 
dipped from the full current of a mind fed 
to the overflow by contributory streams 
flowing out of many hours of continuous 
study life. The preparation of the man 
is the best preparation for the occasion. 

2. A second element in this organization 
of student life for the Christian worker is 
to establish the Bible securely at the center. 
Theoretically the Bible is at the center of 
every Christian teacher's student life; actu- 
ally it is only too often on the periphery. 
The proof of this assertion is twofold. In 
the first place, most religious teachers spend 
far more time in reading books about the 
Bible than in the study of the Bible itself. 
This fact, which is adequate and convincing 
evidence of a wrong method, is too patent 
to need discussion. 

And much so-called Bible study proceeds 
32 



ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDENT LIFE 

at a tangent from the Bible. A great deal 
of it is merely textual and therefore frag- 
mentary. A great deal of it is concerned 
with general discussions in which the biblical 
material plays a minor or merely illustrative 
part. The look of the biblical page, the 
content of the larger units of literary con- 
struction, the movements of thought, the 
meaning of books as a whole, are strange to 
many who think themselves students of the 
Bible. There are many who read discus- 
sions of biblical topics, bristling with Scrip- 
tural quotations, without the open Bible and 
without looking up the references. The 
conditions among us call for wholesale and 
thoroughgoing readjustment. 

Another indication of the same condition 
is the aimless and fruitless inquiries which 
are constantly made about books. Any 
man who studies the Bible for himself will 
discover that which no book contains ; he will 
also discover, by an inevitable process of 
natural selection, the books which he needs. 1 

When, therefore, men are chasing wildly 
about for books which deal with this or that 
aspect of the Bible there is evidence enough 

iSee Appendix, Note I. 

33 



THE STUDY OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE 

that they have not yet escaped from the 
bondage of random reading to the freedom 
of true, progressive, and intensive study. 
The centralizing of the Bible in the study 
life will involve a twofold change in the 
intellectual habits of most men. (a) It will 
involve a restriction in the number of books 
read. No busy man can study the Bible 
as it ought to be studied and keep abreast 
of the current of religious and near-religious 
literature as it flows from the press. The 
comforting fact here is that he ought not to 
attempt this in any case. 

I should like at this point to demolish a 
bugbear which is the curse of many a man's 
life. It is often said: " The minister should 
be a man of one book, the Bible. " To this 
it is said, by way of reply, that he ought to 
be a man of all books worth while. In the 
very thought of all these books terror lurks. 
These apparently counter statements are 
really two sides of one truth. To be a man 
of the one great book is to be a man of all 
books. This is meant, not in the narrow 
and fanatical sense of the Caliph Omar, but 
in the spirit of most genial appreciation of all 
good literature. The point is this, a man 

34 



ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDENT LIFE 

is not made broad by wide reading but by 
thorough reading. True culture involves a 
rigid selective process in the line of one's 
own personal aptitudes and the necessities 
of his life work. 

It is necessary to guard one's self, on the 
one hand, against indiscriminate and omniv- 
orous reading, which is a deadly foe to men- 
tal power; and, on the other, against the 
narrowness of over-specialization, which is 
almost equally destructive of intellectual 
life in any broad and liberal sense. These 
two perils may be avoided by generalizing 
one's specialty. It is a fact, though perhaps 
not generally recognized, that the intensive 
process in any field of study yields ultimately 
the broadest results in the way of general 
culture. 1 

A floating sentence caught my eye some 
time since: "A man cannot know any sub- 
ject which requires intelligence without 
knowing more than that subject." In this 
fugitive and unfathered sentence I find the 
deepest philosophy of the study life. To 
know anything well is to know it in its 
relationships — and where do the relation- 

i See Appendix, Note A. 

35 



THE STUDY OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE 

ships of any fact or group of facts in the 
universe end? The use of the word "uni- 
verse" is indication enough that there is no 
end to such relationships save the limits of 
the universe itself. Intensive study grips the 
totality of related facts by the handle of one. 
I have yet to meet the man too large for 
a country parish, or too wise for any single 
department of human knowledge. The 
truth involved in this principle should be 
eagerly appropriated by the religious worker 
in establishing a center for his intellectual 
life. The lateral outreach of really profound 
Bible study involves, as belonging to its 
essential context, whatever men have 
thought or felt or done. The Bible iji its 
narrowest dimension is as broad as man 
and the world. If only the Bible student 
would venture to restrict his reading to such 
of the best books as his study and the 
devout curiosity which that study arouses 
naturally lead to, going out upon literature, 
history, science, and art through the avenues 
which the Bible itself opens, his work would 
be graciously unified, his time would be 
saved, while the best of the world's thought 
would assuredly come into his possession. 



ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDENT LIFE 

(b) The centralizing of the Bible will have 
another beneficent result, just now sug- 
gested, in affording a principle of selection 
among books. My impression is that most 
young students, at least, find themselves, 
in the world of books, like belated travelers 
lost in a trackless forest. Certainly a 
rigid process of selection is absolutely 
essential. But how select? With the Bible 
itself at the center selection is not so difficult. 
There are two qualities which one should 
desire in books for Bible study, and the use 
of these two qualities as tests will effectively 
sift the immense mass of literature which is 
at hand. One needs, first of all, books 
which will aid to more effective original 
study. The book which comes between the 
student and the Bible, and contributes 
nothing in the way of method or workable 
principles of interpretation, is to be avoided. 
The book which is intended to accompany 
study and which, by its construction, com- 
pels to direct personal study, is to be chosen. 
Books of this character are not the most 
interesting nor the easiest to read. But 
one needs tools, not crutches. 

The true student wishes direction and 
37 



THE STUDY OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE 

inspiration in his work — not to have his 
work done for him. We wish to be taught 
how to work, not to have our hands guided. 
In the last analysis the student must go his 
own way and depend upon himself. The 
book which from the beginning teaches him 
how to do this by demanding much from 
him is always the best. The other criterion 
is that the book in its treatment shall give us 
broader, clearer, truer views of the Bible as 
it is in its wholeness. Here is where a multi- 
tude of books and of dictionary articles fail. 
As topical studies, more or less completely 
illustrated by Scripture references, they are 
well enough, but they leave no distinct and 
unified impression upon the mind. They 
lack what in art is called "breadth and 
simplicity of treatment/' which is defined as 
"the results of a painter's ability to see the 
large significance of things; to view his sub- 
ject, as it were, from afar off, so that it is 
seen apart from its littlenesses of detail in its 
essential character." (Caffin: "How to 
Study Pictures/' p. 485.) 

One constantly rises from the reading of 
discussions, marked by both learning and 
logic, confused in mind and utterly unable 

38 



ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDENT LIFE 

to relate the discussion or to apply it to the 
Bible, as it stands in the unity of its parts 
and must be used. It gives a reader the 
feeling, so acute at times as to be the cause 
of positive irritation, that somehow the 
Bible itself has been lost in the intricacies of 
the discussion. It is like a picture puzzle 
— "Here is an article on the Bible. Find the 
Bible." There are so-called biblical theol- 
ogies in which one looks in vain for any dis- 
cussion of a continuous and unified passage 
of Scripture. There are commentaries and 
introductions which are nothing more than 
histories of opinion on certain portions of the 
Bible. Here again the Bible itself is lost 
under superimposed masses of comments. 
Teachers of the Bible should remember that 
it has a definite literary and historical con- 
stitution, and that to treat it in this dis- 
jointed and fragmentary way is to make a 
true understanding of it impossible. 

It is the hereditary curse of all such 
scribism that it obscures the sacred page 
and comes as a veil between the reader and 
that which he ought to be made to see with 
open vision. We need the Bible, not 
mosaics of Scripture texts. We need con- 



THE STUDY OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE 

tact, not with comment and comment upon 
comment, but with the text itself. The 
Bible, which is a living book with a vital 
message, must be allowed to speak for itself. 

The habit, to which the learned are 
peculiarly liable, of copying the copyist is 
deadly. Creative work in any department 
is the outcome of direct and fresh contact 
with reality itself. A rebirth of art always 
comes when some bold spirit ventures to 
look past the masters to that which the 
masters have endeavored to portray. The 
greatest need of our age in Bible study is 
the study of the Bible. We need aids in 
that study, but to fail of personal contact 
with the actual living Book itself is to put 
ourselves beyond the reach of aid. 1 

3. One other important element in the uni- 
fication of the student life ought to be recog- 

iAs an illustration of the "chasing" for books spoken of a 
few pages back and also of the method here spoken of, the follow- 
ing is suggested. I have often had people come to me for books 
on the "difficulties" of the Bible. Ordinarily I decline to make 
such a recommendation. No student, at least in his nonage, 
ought to read a book on this subject, for two reasons. In the first 
place, continuous reading upon such a book is numbing to the 
mind because dealing with negatives. In the second place, the 
process is artificial and unnatural. The student should, first of 
all, deal with his own difficulties as they arise in the actual 
course of his Bible study. When a passage of Scripture, carefully 
studied, raises a question it will be time enough to search for an 

40 



ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDENT LIFE 

nized and emphasized, namely: the forma- 
tion of far-reaching schedules of study. A 
student ought never to be at loss as to the 
proper use of any hour which may be given 
to study simply because it should be devoted 
to a task already in hand which laps over 
many such hours and demands them all. 

Only by an undertaking large enough to 
require not merely days and months but 
years for its completion can the average 
man's life, otherwise broken into fragments 
by the divisions of time and countless dis- 
tractions, be brought into anything like 
unity. Hence the necessity of forming com- 
prehensive schemes of study and conform- 
ing one's habits to them. One can hardly 
venture to suggest specific plans of work for 
others; circumstances, needs, and personal 
gifts vary so greatly. We ought to recognize 

answer. By this method the student comes upon the difficulty 
through the study of that which has a positive quality and more 
often than not an answer may be found, at the very point of ques- 
tion. Most difficulties are due to misunderstanding. A course in 
Apologetics ought to be open to mature students only, be very 
brief and, above all, constructively biblical. Seeberg says 
("Grundwahrheiten der Christlichen Religion," 5th German Edition, 
p. 4.) one of the most evident causes of modern unbelief " is the 
horrible and to a degree disgraceful ignorance of our educated 
men in religious things" (see whole paragraph). He, therefore, 
undertakes, in the interests of Apologetics, nothing more than 
careful and accurate exposition. 

41 



THE STUDY OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE 

the fact that the educational values as well 
as the practical utility of courses of study 
differ with individuals differently constitu- 
ted and differently placed in life. Nothing 
is attempted here beyond certain sugges- 
tions sufficiently general and fundamental 
to admit of wide application. 

(a) One needs, of course, a principle in 
accordance with which one may form a 
comprehensive and progressive scheme of 
Bible study. This can be constructed most 
easily and most logically along lines of 
natural formation by studying the biblical 
books in succession. 1 Book study, of course, 
involves word study, structural study, and 
the study of historical periods as they appear 
in each book, while, at the same time, plac- 
ing the books in orderly succession keeps 
the historical factors in which the books are 
set and the whole Bible in which they cul- 
minate continually in view. By this method 
a wholesome balance between the extensive 
and intensive dimensions of study is main- 
tained, and the mind is exercised in the 
various modes of application which make 
Bible study so invigorating and inspiring 

1 See Appendix, Note H. 

42 



ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDENT LIFE 

as mental discipline. For thorough work 
one should contemplate the study of two to 
four books a year, according to the size of 
the books and the amount of time at one's 
disposal. The student should be careful, 
above all things, to begin the work in the 
book itself without other aid or comment 
than the open page diligently studied, to 
train himself in minute observation, in the 
power of fruitful comparison, in responsive- 
ness to suggestion, in fertility of interpretive 
thought. 

(b) In the second place, I should urge the 
adoption of a specialty; that is, the choice 
of a department of study of which one is 
fond and to which he spontaneously turns 
when the mind is free. Such a study, once 
interest in it is fairly kindled, becomes at 
once a discipline and a recreation. It stim- 
ulates to greater energy by introducing the 
element of change and rest and insures 
against the waste of intervals of time, one 
of our most serious losses. It builds under 
one's whole life a structure of enduring 
interest. It does more than this; it guar- 
antees that in the course of time there shall 
be at least one subject which the minister 

43 



THE STUDY OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE 

or Christian worker shall know thoroughly. 
It is impossible, at the present stage of 
human knowledge, for any man to know 
everything, or even anything about every- 
thing. But it is possible for a man of 
industry to know everything that is to be 
known about something. But such a mas- 
tery even of a limited field means education, 
it means freedom, it means power. 

Such work overflows its banks and per- 
vades with its influence one's whole life. 
To spend years on a single book, a single 
word, means that during the whole time 
every phase of one's work shall be better 
done. The results are to be measured by 
their effect upon the whole man as he goes 
out upon his entire work. 

(c) A third and final suggestion is this: 
Everyman called to a student life, who wishes 
to grow, ought to have continually before him 
a bit of difficult work which puts his best 
powers on the stretch. There is a very defi- 
nite bit of psychology behind this suggestion. 
The most insidious peril of professional 
men, certain classes of them, at least, is that, 
in the presence of formal obligations which 
can be met without excess of effort, the life, 

44 



ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDENT LIFE 

in spite of the appearance of industry, shall 
become fundamentally indolent. Teachers 
who are called upon for the same subjects 
year after year, preachers whose audiences 
are not critical, must find stimulation to 
work as inner impulse and principle, or 
lapse into idleness. The best corrective of 
this tendency is for one to keep driving at a 
hard task, to hold one's self habitually to a 
bit of investigation, translation, philosoph- 
ical or doctrinal reading, which really puts 
a constant and steady strain upon mind and 
will. Self -discipline of a severe and stren- 
uous order is the only alternative to impair- 
ment of vigor and loss of usefulness through 
a fatally easy lapse into habits of waste and 
idleness. 

And here we may fitly close this portion of 
our discussion. In the last analysis the 
ultimate secret both of usefulness and of 
power is to plan one's life wisely and well in 
the light of what is demanded of us and what 
we ought to give, and then with undeviating 
faithfulness embody that plan in actual 
living. 



45 



Ill 

THE STUDY OF BIBLICAL WORDS 

The English Bible, as all the world knows, 
is a translation. Behind the Bible which 
we read and are endeavoring to study lies 
a group of documents in Hebrew, Aramaic, 
and Greek. Every word before us repre- 
sents an attempt to find a word to convey 
the meaning of a corresponding word in 
one of these languages. This fact at once 
raises the question, which is fundamental 
to the entire discussion of this subject: Is 
it possible to do exact and scholarly work 
on the basis of a translation? 

Some would make haste to answer this 
question with an absolute negative. It is 
affirmed that no two languages exactly cor- 
respond, item for item. No translation, 
therefore, however careful and scholarly, 
can do more than convey with approxi- 
mate accuracy the substance of the thought. 
The finer shades of meaning, the full and 
exact value of form as distinct from sub- 
stance, the tint and flavor escape in the 
change from the language in which a thought 

46 



STUDY OF BIBLICAL WORDS 

was born to another and alien tongue. 
The idiom cannot be transferred. So far 
as scholarship is concerned, it will be said, 
the student of a version will always be 
working at second hand — in "shadow" as 
Melanchthon used to say; and, continually, 
the acquisition of clear-cut, accurate mean- 
ings will be beyond his reach. It has even 
been affirmed that the study of the English 
Bible is not the study of the Bible at all. 

This is a familiar contention, but it is 
doubtful whether its full implication has 
been realized even by those who have most 
insistently urged it. If, in the very nature 
of the case, one language refuses to be 
exactly rendered into another, this consti- 
tutes a barrier impassable even to the most 
exact scholarship. The full and exact 
meaning of a language is an incommunicable 
secret held by those who have mastered it 
from within. They may tell it to one 
another but to no one without. A lan- 
guage can be interpreted only in terms of 
itself. All that scholarship can do in the 
way of understanding a foreign language it 
can embody in a translation or in aids to 
the understanding of it. Otherwise schol- 

47 



THE STUDY OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE 

arship is dumb and cannot teach or convey 
what it knows. Exact knowledge of an 
exact translation would constitute in a very 
high degree exact knowledge of the original. 
A conceivably ideal translation would 
leave out of reach of the scholarly student 
of its text three classes of facts: meanings 
not known; meanings translatable neither 
directly nor by paraphrase; meanings to be 
expressed only by paraphrase. Of these 
facts behind or outside the translation, 
the first are unknown even to the greatest 
scholars; the second are known to the great- 
est scholars only; the third may be expressed 
in translation and are available for any care- 
ful student in the form of comment or 
explanation. Of these three classes of facts, 
so far as the Bible is concerned, the first is 
by far the smallest, the second is not much 
larger, while the third is the most numerous 
and most important of all. Biblical words 
absolutely unknown or impossible to render 
with essential accuracy are comparatively 
few. At the outset of our consideration of 
word-study in the English Bible, let us look 
deliberately at the facts so to as see just 

48 



STUDY OF BIBLICAL WORDS 

what is available and how we are to get 
possession of it. 

In the interpretation of a word there are 
two principal factors: etymology which in- 
cludes derivation, root significance, and 
language relationship; and usage, which is 
the actual use of the word in literature. In 
the case of the Bible, usage would be sub- 
divided into usage outside the Bible and 
usage within the Bible. 

Two of the three elements here enumer- 
ated are, so far as first-hand knowledge is 
concerned, locked up in the original tongues. 
More than this, any really important first- 
hand knowledge of these facts of language 
is irrevocably in the hands of the language 
specialist. We need to give earnest heed 
to this plain fact of which many enlightened 
persons seem never even to have heard. 
There is a prevalent and erroneous notion 
abroad that such a working knowledge of 
Hebrew and Greek as the average college 
and seminary student is able to acquire in a 
half-dozen years of language study, supple- 
mented by the desultory activities in the 
same line which he is able to maintain amid 
his professional duties, qualifies him to be 

49 



TEE STUDY OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE 

an "original scholar/' Be it known that 
it does not, nor anything like it. The 
original scholar is a vara avis, and many 
well-read and far-traveled people have 
never seen one. 

A very humble place is all that most of 
us can ever hope to occupy in the interpre- 
tation of the original languages in which 
the Bible was written. Creative work here 
is sacred to the specialist, and we ought 
not to hesitate to accord him his right. 
Back of all the work, in the way of inter- 
pretation, which the average man of sound 
scholarship can ever expect to do lie the 
immense and often concealed and unre- 
garded labors of many specialists in many 
fields. Between each of us and the orig- 
inal documents of the Bible are genera- 
tions not only of authors, but of scribes 
and copyists, archaeologists, lexicographers, 
who have written, copied, collated, trans- 
lated, and interpreted the texts for us. 
If any consideration whatever could intro- 
duce humility into the constitution of even 
exceptional men whose attainments, how- 
ever brilliant, are merely of a general char- 
acter, it would be the recognition of the 

50 



STUDY OF BIBLICAL WORDS 

debt they are compelled constantly to owe to 
the labors of specialists, men of rare and 
exceptional gifts, for the very materials 
with which they deal. Except for men of 
the same unusual caliber the thought of 
competition here is absurd. 

My central contention is that, in the 
very nature of the case, true scholarship in 
the original languages is for the few; while, 
at the same time, the broader opportunity 
for the attainment of the dignity and power 
of a true creative scholarship is open to 
those who make proper use of the English 
Bible. In support of this conclusion three 
considerations, all three sufficiently obvious 
but often overlooked in this connection, 
may be urged. The first lies somewhat 
apart from the subject of word study; but, 
as the whole question of the standing of 
English Bible study, as a discipline, is up 
in this immediate connection, we may as 
well go through with it. 

1. The first consideration then is this: 
The English Bible in itself, apart from all 
questions of its relationship to original docu- 
ments, is sufficiently great and complex to 
challenge scholarship of the highest order 

51 



THE STUDY OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE 

to the use of all its specialized gifts. It is 
several hours too late, by the clock, to deny 
the classical standing and cultural value of 
the English language and literature. It is, 
therefore, by just so much, too late to deny 
that the English Bible, which is the English 
classic par excellence, demands and will 
reward the highest intellectual powers which 
may be brought to bear upon it. The 
advance from mechanical letter-mastery 
through literary appreciation to a just and 
adequate perception of spiritual values in 
the English Bible is no mediocre achieve- 
ment. To master a true perspective of the 
history which it records, to maintain a firm 
grasp of the system of great ideas in great 
words which it expresses, to gain a clear 
insight into the characters which walk 
through its pages, to apply to the world and 
human life the organic principles which it 
discloses — all this is an intellectual task of 
such magnitude that few persons, even 
among the educated, have even begun to 
imagine it. 

It must be confessed that ordinarily the 
English Bible is not studied with anything 
like the care bestowed by the student upon 

52 



STUDY OF BIBLICAL WORDS 

the originals. This is partly due to the 
feeling that no real rewards in the way of 
genuine scholarship are obtainable by this 
method. The study of the English Bible 
seems easy and therefore unworthy of one 
with scholarly ambitions. Both of these 
ideas are fallacious. There is a vast field 
here open to the student, a field of immense 
extent filled with limitless detail of the ut- 
most value. The mastery and interpreta- 
tion of the English Bible call for the exercise 
of faculties of observation, comparison, 
and analysis, together with power of clear 
apprehension and forceful expression of 
the very highest order. Herein lies the 
supreme significance of the English Bible 
as an intellectual discipline. So great is it, 
in its complexity of structure, in its majesty 
of idea and form, in its sweep of thought 
and varied richness of content, that contact 
with it and the attempt to master it are a 
broadening and educative process of un- 
paralleled value. So much may be said 
as to the intellectual significance of the 
versions, irrespective of all questions con- 
cerning original languages. 

2. The second point to be considered is 
53 



THE STUDY OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE 

this : The ripest results of special and recon- 
dite learning are embodied in the English 
translation. The English Bible is the meet- 
ing place of a half-dozen noble sciences, and 
masters of many tongues have united to 
make it supremely significant as a guide to 
the meaning of words. No student of 
Hebrew or Greek could afford to ignore 
the work done upon the English Bible by 
the scholars who have put their lives into 
the translation. Our version is among other 
things a monumental linguistic achievement 
of incalculable value, as such, to scholar- 
ship. Moreover, when we speak of the 
English version we are thinking not of one 
single rendering but of a series of such 
renderings, each one a notable achievement 
of devotion and of learning. From the 
days of the Venerable Bede, who died in 
Easter week, a.d. 735, until the present 
time, a period of nearly twelve hundred 
years, Christian scholarship has been tire- 
lessly at work upon the task of rendering 
the ancient documents into English. The 
record of this work forms one of the noblest 
and most satisfactory chapters in the history 
of the English race. As Westcott, speaking 

54 



STUDY OF BIBLICAL WORDS 

of the twofold history of the English ver- 
sions, puts it: "The external history is a 
stirring record of faithful and victorious 
courage; the internal is not less remarkable 
from the enduring witness which it bears 
to that noble catholicity which is the glory 
of the English Church." ("History of the 
English Bible/ 5 p. 8.) 

These versions have kept pace, on the 
one hand, with the development of the 
English language; and, on the other, with 
the development of Oriental philology and 
archaeology. For the reason that English 
is a living tongue and that all the sciences 
which contribute to the elucidation of the 
biblical texts are, and will continue to be, 
for generations to come, in process of growth, 
new T translations of various passages will 
be imperatively demanded. Between the 
version of 1611-38 and the so-called "Revi- 
sion" of 1881-5, which are now in compari- 
son, are three full centuries of advance in 
archaeology and philology. One has but 
to compare these two versions, in order to 
realize how immense has been the gain. 
The version of 1611, noble as it is as a 
monument of noble English and of contem- 
6 55 



THE STUDY OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE 

porary scholarship, is, in spite of the fact 
that expository literature is filled with 
corrective and explanatory comments and 
fragmentary retranslations, obsolete for 
scholarly and literary purposes to-day. 
(Cf. Moulton: "Literary Study of the 
Bible/ 5 p. 90.) It is often unsafe to quote 
from it where exactness is required. The 
merely casual reader will be astonished to 
find, upon examination, how many pas- 
sages which, in the old version, are sonorous 
but unintelligible to careful analysis, have 
yielded the long withheld secret of their 
meaning and stand out on the pages of the 
new version like newly discovered stars. 
Let the reader, for example, compare, in the 
two versions, the translations of Isaiah 
ix, 5 and of Job xxviii. It has been well 
said that the former of these two new 
translations alone would justify the entire 
undertaking. If so, the latter passage 
would represent an immense profit on all 
outlay. 

This process of gradual gain is constantly 
and steadily going on. There is constantly 
on hand a fund of new material, like that 
furnished by the newly discovered Aramaic 

56 



STUDY OF BIBLICAL WORDS 

texts from the Island of Elephantine, and 
recovered stores of Greek and Roman papyri 
from Egypt and elsewhere (see Expositor, 
January, 1911, and articles by Professor 
Moulton in subsequent issues; cf. Deiss- 
mann: "New Light/ ' etc.; Bibliotheca Sacra, 
January, 1911, p. 94; Sayce: Expositor, 
August, 1911), waiting to be deciphered, 
published, sifted, and the results embodied, 
first in commentary and discussion and 
finally in translation. In addition to these 
often epoch-making discoveries the labors 
of scholars are constantly turning up iso- 
lated items of information, the most valu- 
able of which will ultimately be at the dis- 
posal of the student of the English Bible. 
The specialist will always be in the lead of 
the most scholarly student of the versions, 
but the results of his investigations must 
finally come to hand for the English reader. 
Whatever of enduring worth he finds we 
shall all share with him. 

The essential point is that the best and 
latest translation embodies the results of 
learning in such a way as to make the really 
profound attempt to deal with it a serious 
work of true scholarship. 

57 



THE STUDY OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE 

3. The third important consideration 
which most vitally concerns the study of 
separate biblical words is this : The decisive 
factor in the determination of the meaning of 
words is to be found in the biblical usage, 
the accurate study of which is within the 
reach of the careful student of the English 
Bible. As this is a serious statement and 
one which will be immediately challenged, 
it is necessary to display, with some thor- 
oughness, the grounds upon which it rests. 

(a) In the first place, it is to be noted that 
in the direct study of Hebrew and Greek 
words biblical usage is decisive for the 
meanings of biblical words. Whatever may 
be the derivation or root-meaning in the 
extra-biblical usage of a word, these are only 
partial guides to the meaning which that 
word has within the Scriptures themselves. 
Each important Bible word is seen to have 
a most significant history within the Bible 
itself. Used by different writers at various 
times for the conveyance of various com- 
binations of ideas, a certain definite body 
of characteristic meanings will crystallize 
around the word. 

It is conceivable, therefore, that a work 
58 



STUDY OF BIBLICAL WORDS 

of great erudition might be built upon bibli- 
cal words which would be comparatively 
useless as a guide to the interpretation of 
the Bible and that a person might be learned 
in the biblical languages and not useful in 
the teaching of the Bible, each because the 
actual biblical usage is neglected. It may 
be, as Deissmann affirms (see "Light/' etc., 
Ch. ii.), that the exclusively biblical char- 
acter of certain words, especially in the 
New Testament, has been overemphasized, 
but the fact remains that many of the most 
important Bible words have acquired most 
characteristic phases of meaning and appli- 
cation within the Bible itself. 

This, then, is the first step in the justi- 
fication of our disputed thesis. No scholar, 
even the expert in comparative philology, 
can dispense with the light upon the mean- 
ing of words to be gained from the biblical 
usage in the various contexts in which the 
words appear. This, again, is only another 
method by which we can get a line of meas- 
urement upon the vastness of the task 
involved in any competent handling of the 
Bible in the original tongues. It involves 
the close comparative study of the entire 

59 



THE STUDY OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE 

biblical literature, in the light of its lin- 
guistic associations and affinities, a task 
demanding the lifelong dedication of very 
special gifts. If this were all that could 
be said, we should simply be compelled to 
acknowledge that we are in the hands of 
specialists in language and can do no work 
in this department for ourselves. 

(b) But there is something else to be said, 
and I have come all this way in order to say 
it with appropriate emphasis. While the 
technicalities of comparative philology can- 
not be embodied in a translation (in the 
accessories of translation they may), the 
decisive factor which is usage, that is, con- 
crete, contextual application of words in 
the expression of ideas, will emerge in an 
adequate translation with substantial accu- 
racy. 

Such being the case, to master the con- 
texts as given in accurate translations is to 
master the words themselves. On the other 
hand, the attempt to determine the mean- 
ing of words on the basis of derivation alone 
is an extremely precarious undertaking. 
Often it is more misleading than illumina- 
ting. In many instances the original mean- 

60 



STUDY OF BIBLICAL WORDS 

ing has been lost in the passage of time and 
so obscured by historical changes in usage 
as to make a scientific use of it impossible. 
The same word may acquire a large num- 
ber of variant meanings, many of them at a 
great remove from the original significance. 
The rigid application of the root meaning to 
one of these more or less remote derivative 
applications may lead to total misap- 
prehension. In general, however, under- 
emphasis upon etymology of a word is 
negative and barren, rather than positively 
misleading. The positive content, the color 
and power of words are to be found in the 
literature as they are actually used. The 
student who conducts a wide and careful 
comparative survey of contexts, trusting to 
the philologist for the language equivalents 
of the particular words he is studying, will 
find himself in possession of a constantly 
increasing fund of information which is at 
once scientifically accurate and practically 
useful. It is not necessary to discuss this 
point further, as a rather full exposition of 
the grounds upon which the assertion here 
made rests has been supplied in the notes 
(see Appendix, Notes B and J). Two char- 

61 



THE STUDY OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE 

acteristic and important biblical words are 
discussed with a view to making clear the 
distinction insisted upon between philology 
and usage. 1 

If the reader will carefully review such 
discussions as those to which we have here 
alluded, he will arrive at the point toward 
which this discussion has been tending. To 
be perfectly frank, we are more deeply im- 
pressed with the method than with the 
results, either in quantity or quality, which 
are attained by strictly philological inves- 
tigation. It seems, in fact, a meager grist 
for so much grinding by approved modern 
machinery. Professor Davidson, for in- 
stance, concerning Jehovah, says ("The- 
ology of the Old Testament/' p. 45): 
"Much has been written on the subject of 
the name Jehovah, but little light has been 
cast upon it. 5 ' 

Now, undeniably, the method is that of 
original scholarship dealing with the sources. 
We admire and envy the ability of such 
men to handle their materials, to sift, ana- 

i For a very interesting discussion of etymology as related to 
the interpretation of myths, where the question is of such vital 
importance as to divide scholars into formal schools, see Andrew 
Lang's " Modern Mythology.' • 

62 



STUDY OF BIBLICAL WORDS 

lyze, and interpret complex masses of facts. 
But, strange as it may seem, in many in- 
stances the actual, positive results in the 
way of assured knowledge, by a method of 
handling complex materials equally direct 
and original, are attainable for the student of 
the English Bible. 

In the attempt, in outlining a method of 
studying biblical words, to discriminate be- 
tween philology as such and usage I have 
been reminded of certain weighty words 
with the quotation of which this section 
may appropriately close. Milton ("Trac- 
tate of Education") says: "And though a 
linguist should pride himself to have all the 
tongues that Babel cleft the world into, yet 
if he have not studied the solid things in 
them, as well as the words and lexicons, he 
were nothing so much to be esteemed a 
learned man as any yeoman or tradesman 
competently wise in his mother dialect 
only." 

Now, for the moral. The foregoing pages 
were not written as a polemic against the 
study of the Bible in the original tongues. 
I can agree with an enthusiastic teacher who 
says: "The way back to our origins must be 

63 



THE STUDY OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE 

kept open; and this means that Hebrew 
and Greek be not only provided for in a 
theological curriculum, but their study 
encouraged. " " Unless in every department 
of human learning the study of the sources 
be encouraged, there will not be the few to 
effect a higher level in human attainments 
for the many" (President M. G. Evans in 
Bulletin of Crozer Theological Seminary, 
October, 1911, p. 163). But when the same 
writer says: "The fundamental error is in 
supposing that in studying the English 
Bible we are studying the Bible," he not 
only asserts one fallacy; he indirectly coun- 
tenances another far more serious. The 
over-emphasis upon the distinction between 
the originals and the versions leads to the 
untenable assumption that the originals 
cannot be found in the version, however 
excellent, or reached through it. This is 
the direct fallacy. John Jay Chapman, in 
his essay on Learning (in "Learning and 
Other Essays," p. 7), has this to say about 
Shakespeare and his sources: "It is amazing 
how little of a foreign language you need if 
you have a passion for the thing written in 
it. We think of Shakespeare as of a lightly 

64 



STUDY OF BIBLICAL WORDS 

lettered person; but he was ransacking books 
all day to find plots and language for his 
plays. He reeks with mythology, he swims 
in classical metaphor; and if he knew the 
Latin poets, only in translation, he knew 
them with the famished intensity of interest 
which can draw the meaning through the 
walls of a bad text. Deprive Shakespeare 
of his sources, and he could not be Shake- 
speare. " In view of the scientific accuracy 
as well as literary finish of the English ver- 
sions of the Bible, the idea that the student 
cannot reach it, in its literary beauty, and 
cultural power, as well as in its spiritual 
essence and force, is nothing short of absurd- 
ity. 

The indirect fallacy, which, at least, is 
countenanced in such extreme utterances, 
is, as I have said, the more dangerous. To 
meet this danger and protect the student 
against it is the purpose of the present writ- 
ing. The fallacy is that linguistic study 
with the biblical text as the source of 
illustrative material constitutes, in any real 
sense, study of the Bible. The cramping 
idea, which was the limitation of the 
Renaissance, that a book cannot be known 

65 



THE STUDY OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE 

except in the original has fettered our insti- 
tutions of religious education throughout 
their entire history. "Broadly, the refusal 
of the teachers of the Reformation period to 
make translations of the classical writings or 
to value them has modified the entire history 
of modern education." The inevitable con- 
sequence was this : education became a mere 
synonym for instruction in Latin and Greek. 
The only ideal set up for the "educated" 
was the classical scholar (Quick: "Educa- 
tional Reformers/' p. 8) . I should be inclined 
almost to reverse the dictum of President 
Evans to the extent of saying: "The funda- 
mental error is in supposing that in studying 
Hebrew and Greek we are studying the 
Bible." A question propounded by Dr. 
Berle is pertinent here: "Why know the 
New Testament in Greek, if the man who 
knows it thus is paralyzed in its use and 
application in English ? " (Bibliotheca Sacra, 
July, 1907.) No man will ever really know 
the Bible except in his mother tongue. 
Even the scholar cannot dispense with the 
version as a depository for his special knowl- 
edge and the average learned man relies 
upon it far more than he is aware. And the 

66 



STUDY OF BIBLICAL WORDS 

whole end and aim of the general culture of 
the average man and the special training of 
the exceptional man are to provide tools and 
aptitude for the interpretation of the Bible 
in the vernacular. Any other idea or 
method will inevitably tend to destroy his 
usefulness both as a student and interpreter 
of Scripture. 

4. Two practical suggestions may fittingly 
bring this discussion to a close. 

(a) First, the student should not overlook 
the fact that no study of biblical words is 
measurably complete which does not involve 
a close comparison of renderings. This in- 
volves the study of more than one version. 
Every version is the attempt to make a 
translation which conveys the essential 
meaning and the literary form of the origi- 
nal and is, at the same time, couched in 
correct, idiomatic, and attractive English. 
This double task is always difficult and 
sometimes well-nigh impossible of attain- 
ment. The translator of any passage must 
be a master both of the original and of 
English. He is not always equally so. 
The result is an imperfect rendering or 
inferior English, or both. Sometimes the 

67 



THE STUDY OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE 

only possible rendering is a paraphrase 
(Amos vi, 10 is an instance in point); 
sometimes the rendering involves interpre- 
tation. It is, of course, evident that in a 
popular version there is little or no room for 
exhibiting disputed renderings. No one 
version is equally good in all particulars 
and for all purposes. It may readily be seen 
that one version may be more accurate in its 
renderings and less attractive for purposes 
of literary study than another. For the 
best results the student should know both. 
A part of his task is to know as many ver- 
sions and renderings as possible. A mechan- 
ically exact and literal rendering should be 
the basis of study, while the attempts, of 
which there are many, some of them notable 
in success, to convey the spirit and literary 
quality of the original should be used by 
way of comparison. The student should 
be assured that the same English word is 
used in all cognate cases to render the same 
word in the original. Where one word in 
English is the only equivalent of several 
with shades of difference in meaning (Si and 
aXXd in Greek corresponding to but in Eng- 
lish) the meaning can be brought out only 

68 



STUDY OF BIBLICAL WORDS 

by discussion. A comparative study of 
renderings to be found in commentaries and 
monographs will give the student related 
words and enable him to attain a far higher 
degree of precision than would otherwise 
be possible. 

(b) The second suggestion is that in every 
portion of the Bible there are two distinct 
classes of words; first, what may be called 
"hack" words, grammatical skeleton words 
which embody the mental processes by 
which ideas are reached and expressed; and, 
second, the special and distinctive words in 
which those ideas are embodied and con- 
veyed. To a very great extent the whole 
Bible is built up of a few great words into 
which experience, history, genius, and inspi- 
ration have been distilled. These great 
organic and structural words are to be 
searched out and mastered. They are few 
but mighty. One could almost obliterate 
the meaning of the Bible by the erasure of a 
dozen or fifteen great words. One should 
establish the habit of fastening upon the 
great words which lend distinction of mean- 
ing to the passages in which they appear. 
Such a word always has the tendency to 



$ 



THE STUDY OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE 

steady one's mind and to lead out to the 
main highways of biblical thought. Great 
words embody great ideas. The study of 
them in the Bible is sure, sooner or later, to 
disclose, in one or another aspect of it, the 
manifoldness, the greatness, and the essen- 
tial unity of the Bible. 



70 



IV 

THE STRUCTURAL STUDY OF THE BIBLE 

The English Bible, as ordinarily printed, 
presents to the eye a bleak and monotonous 
text, broken only by the formal division into 
books, chapters, and verses. This lament- 
able blunder of printing makes the his- 
torical English version an alien mask which 
conceals the primary fact that the Bible is 
of most diversified structure, a complex, 
living body of literature. The most serious 
fault of the English version, largely but not 
by any means entirely remedied in the two 
recent revisions, is that it is printed without 
regard to the structure of the original, and, 
therefore, without regard to any recog- 
nizable principles of interpretation. 

One of the very first necessities, on the 
part of one who would know the Bible as it 
really is, is to become acquainted with the 
elementary facts of its structure and con- 
stitution. Interpretative principles are 
grounded and determined here. When 
one clearly realizes that the Bible "exhibits 

« 71 



THE STUDY OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE 

the variety of literary form familiar to him 
elsewhere, essays, epigrams, sonnets, stories, 
sermons, songs, philosophical observations 
and treatises, historic and legal documents/ 5 
he has grasped one of the most important 
principles involved in the right understand- 
ing of it. The student should dismiss from 
his mind, once and for all, any idea that the 
literary study of the Bible is any light and 
superficial pastime, fit for the dilettante 
but not for the earnest and scholarly stu- 
dent. On the contrary, it is a process which 
is indispensable for any and all students. 
The end and aim of Bible study, as such, 
are to grasp the ideas which the Bible was 
intended to convey; but those ideas are 
inseparably bound up with the forms of 
expression which are used to convey them. 
Idea and form are, in a very deep sense, 
twin-born and inseparable. 

Attention has already been called to the 
fact that structure is of two kinds, literary 
and grammatical. Literary structure con- 
sists of those specific modes of expression 
which mind has created for itself as the 
appropriate vehicles of certain types of 
thought and feeling; while grammatical 

72 



STRUCTURAL STUDY OF THE BIBLE 

structure gives the articulation of the 
thought process. It is quite evident that 
literary forms, being, like language itself, 
the creation of mind in its self-expressing 
function, are not accidental nor wholly 
conventional, but, to a degree, inevitable 
and necessary. They are, therefore, the 
self -created moulds and native instruments 
of the idea. Each one has a distinct and 
individual meaning, a separate, unique, 
and incommunicable value. The sonnet 
cannot express the same idea or group of 
ideas as the essay or oration. The brief, 
condensed proverb or mashal has not the 
same thought-conveying quality as the 
dramatic dialogue or the closely woven 
dissertation. In any case the form cannot 
be neglected in the attempt to reach the 
essential idea which is to be understood. 
It is not my purpose to make a literary analy- 
sis of the Bible in any detail, but simply to 
point out the importance of its mastery as 
an integral part of the study process as 
applied to the Bible. 

1. In the first place, the student should 
clearly understand its scope and significance. 
The end and therefore the purpose of liter- 

73 



THE STUDY OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE 

ary study is to attain that peculiar state of 
mind which is known as " appreciation ;" 
which may be defined as taking delight 
not only in what is said but in the way in 
which it is said. It is not the study of forms 
alone but of forms as related to the expres- 
sion of ideas. As Professor Genung says: 
"The term literary is to be taken in a lib- 
eral circuit which comprehends not form and 
style alone, but theme and aim and spiritual 
power" ("Wisdom Literature/' preface, p. 
7). It is to be remembered distinctly, 
however, that the literary study includes 
form and style as well as essential idea and 
that it implies a recognition of beauty, and 
sublimity in expression together with truth 
in what is said. 

2. Recognizing the significance of the lit- 
erary study of the Bible, we are now prepared 
to estimate its importance. I should put, 
first of all, the fact that true literary study 
demands sympathy, (a) In this it offers a 
valuable and effective counterpoise to the 
"critical method which, in the attempt to be 
impersonal and scientific, often becomes rigid 
and mechanical/ ' Professor Genung has 
stated with such clearness and effective 

74 



STRUCTURAL STUDY OF THE BIBLE 

emphasis the issue here raised that I take 
the liberty of quoting his statement in full : 

The critical spirit, taking a station outside the 
subject of study, looks over into it with the eyes of a 
spectator, noting the results of a process in which it 
has not shared and passing judgment by a standard 
of history or dogma or philology already made. Its 
direction, by the very fact of being critical, is essen- 
tially opposite to the creative surge and current of 
the author's mind; it reduces his fervors to a resid- 
uum of reason; it imposes a dispassionate measure on 
what is to it a finished result; its besetting tendency 
is to leave the work cold and obsolete or analyzed 
out of life. The constructive spirit, on the other 
hand, quickened first to living sympathy, takes its 
place at the center of the work itself, whence the 
radiating lines of thought and feeling stretch out in 
vital motion, seen through the author's eyes and 
realized through his glowing soul. ("Words of 
Koheleth," Preface.) 

The bearing of this principle upon the 
study of the Bible is evident. Literary 
appreciation is, of course, not the same as 
spiritual sympathy, but the two are akin, 
and in a great passage which is at once lit- 
erary and spiritual they coalesce and work 
together. Literary sympathy demands a 
surrender to the mood of the writer, and, in 
spite of differences of temperament, feeling, 

75 



TEE STUDY OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE 

and viewpoint, an honest attempt to stand 
in his place, to see with his eyes, and to feel 
as he feels. True literary appreciation 
therefore naturally leads to the recognition 
and acceptance of spiritual exaltation and 
intense moral earnestness on the part of a 
writer as an element in his quality and 
idiom to be known and felt. It forbids the 
assumption of a harsh and alien mood of 
criticism, at least, until the inner quality 
of the passage has made itself felt. Had all 
interpreters of Scripture been true to this 
principle we should have been spared much 
crude and inept, because unfeeling and un- 
comprehending, criticism. 

(b) In the second place, literary structure 
is the key to feeling, and feeling is, of course, 
an essential element in the apprehension of 
truth. Every idea is surrounded by a 
penumbra of emotion. Truth has not only 
radiance but also warmth and color. The 
forms of literary construction point to the 
quality and type of feeling displayed. Here 
is the essential distinction in office of prose 
and poetry, of essay and oration, of song 
and drama. The expression and realization 
of the feeling wrapped up in ideas are 

76 



STRUCTURAL STUDY OF THE BIBLE 

through the instrumentality of style, the 
choice, arrangement, and consequent move- 
ment and sound of words. Style, as 
distinguished from the mere mechanical ar- 
rangement of words to express ideas, varies 
with feeling. Emotion kindles the imag- 
ination and expresses itself, naturally and 
spontaneously, in the forms of speech 
which art recognizes and uses to express 
ideas and kindle responsive emotion. 

(c) Third, literary structure, which in- 
cludes distinctive types of literature as the 
recognized vehicles of certain purposes in 
the expression of ideas, is the clue to the very 
vital relationship of truth and matters of 
fact. The ordinary person, if questioned, 
would probably affirm that truth and mat- 
ters of fact are always identical. But this 
is not true. A parable, for example, is a 
form of literature which is pledged to essen- 
tial truth but not at all to matters of fact. 
Akin to this is the allegory. A poem does 
not bear the same relationship to matters 
of fact as an historical narrative or scientific 
treatise. I well remember being struck, 
years ago, by an absurd remark made by a 
distinguished naturalist who gravely pointed 

77 



TEE STUDY OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE 

out what he considered a "scientific error" 
in one of the Psalms. A man must be in an 
interesting state of mind who demands induc- 
tive scientific accuracy in a lyric poem. 
The distinction now being emphasized be- 
tween truth in the spiritual realm and in the 
inner meaning of things and matters of 
scientific and historical fact has its bearing 
upon the interpretation of apocalyptic lit- 
terature and historical documents of the 
philosophic type. 

(d) A fourth element of value in the study 
of literary structure in the Bible is that it 
forms the natural line of approach to the 
organic unities which bind the parts of the 
great Book together. If one clearly appre- 
hends that the ascent to higher unities 
along the natural lines of structure, consist- 
ing of incorporated organic units, each one 
of which is more or less of a key to the whole, 
is the one way to mastery, his entire study 
life will feel the bracing effect of that one 
master principle. In ordinary Bible read- 
ing, in the courses of study in the Bible 
school, even in preaching, we are so con- 
stantly dealing with isolated items that we 
are in peril of losing the very sense of unity. 

78 



STRUCTURAL STUDY OF THE BIBLE 

It is a fatal error to allow the Bible to be- 
come a religious miscellany. 

The words of Professor Moulton should be 
in the mind of every Bible student, both as 
inspiration and warning. He says: "In 
dealing with any other literature the stu- 
dent would naturally, and as a matter of 
course, look for the higher unity in what he 
reads. He would not read Virgil merely 
to get quotable hexameters, nor Shake- 
speare to find pithy sentences; he would 
wish to comprehend the drift of a scene, or 
the plot of a whole play; he would read a 
whole eclogue at once, or even sustain his 
attention through the twelve books of the 
iEneid. But the vast majority of those 
who read the Bible have never shaken off 
the mediaeval tendency to look upon it as 
a collection of isolated sentences, isolated 
texts, isolated verses. Their intention is 
nothing but reverent; but the effect of their 
imperfect reading is to degrade a sacred 
literature into a pious scrap heap." ("Lit- 
erary Study of the Bible," p. 81f.) 

In general we must not forget that the 
very nerve of constructive scholarship — 
indeed, the very process of mental assimila- 

79 



THE STUDY OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE 

tion — is the constant outreach for wholes; 
i. e. 9 placing the word in the sentence or 
line and finding its significance there, plac- 
ing the sentence in the paragraph and the 
paragraph in the argument and the argu- 
ment in the book. Now, literary structure, 
since it is born of the thought, is one of the 
most certain indexes we have of organic uni- 
ties. Sentences, paragraphs, poems, books, 
are units, structurally organized and so far 
complete. Usually unity or the reverse is 
a discernible quality of the structure itself. 

In addition to its more direct bearing 
upon interpretation, the search for unities 
has two valuable by-products. 

(e) It touches the vital problem of "au- 
thority." 

The question, of immense importance 
whatever one's views as to the final standard 
of authority, "What does the Bible teach?" 
can be answered only by a broad and intel- 
ligent induction of various passages. How 
often do we take the pains necessary for 
such a study? How many of us have ever 
passed in review in a continuous, orderly, 
and cumulative way all that the Bible 
says, directly and indirectly, upon any 

80 



STRUCTURAL STUDY OF THE BIBLE 

great fundamental theme? But what right 
have we to claim the backing of the Bible 
for any personal or private interpretation 
on the basis of a few passages chosen at 
random or picked up in a disorderly scramble 
for proofs? Revelation is both progressive 
and manifold. Therefore we must con- 
tinually be on our guard against the danger 
of losing hold of the great synthetic and 
cumulative statements of Scripture in which 
movements of inspiration reach their climax 
of fulfilment. In a disclosure of God's 
character and purposes, reaching from primi- 
tive times to the threshold of the modern 
era, there must be tentative and partial 
statements of truth made, so to say, on the 
way to the full-orbed unfolding of final 
truth. For the most part it is safe to say 
that, for any important statement of Scrip- 
ture, to tear it from its context is to destroy 
its meaning. The student who begins to 
search for adequate contextual material in 
connection with the specific passages which 
he studies will find, more and more, that he 
needs the whole of Scripture as the necessary 
background of every important passage. 1 

» See Appendix, Note D. 

81 



THE STUDY OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE 

(f) This same search for unities has no 
remote connection with another vital mat- 
ter, the great critical and constructive prob- 
lems of the modern era. 

The literary and scientific study of the 
Bible involves two distinct and, to a degree, 
contrasted movements of the mind. One is 
the application of modern instruments of 
scientific precision to the identification and 
interpretation of ancient documents. The 
task of the student is to relate a given doc- 
ument or section of a document, on the 
basis, largely, of internal considerations of 
language, subject-matter and view-point, to 
the historical process, independently consid- 
ered, so as to indicate the time, place and 
personality of the writer. There can be no 
possible question of the legitimacy or neces- 
sity of this method and process. It has 
always been used in Bible study and always 
must be used. The method should never 
be identified or confused with a given set 
of individual opinions. All that we know 
of biblical backgrounds, side-lights and per- 
spectives has been gained by the more or 
less conscious application of the scientific 
method. 



STRUCTURAL STUDY OF THE BIBLE 

The student has another task, as sug- 
gested already, namely, to study the docu- 
ment sympathetically from within, and in 
reliance upon its literary structure. We 
must not forget that the search for incor- 
porated sources, the hunt for structural 
seams, should be counter-balanced and cor- 
rected by the search for unities. Documen- 
tary divisions and unities cannot be safely 
determined except upon the basis of a care- 
ful study of the literary structure viewed 
also from within. Dissection so minute as 
to be destructive is often carried on in dis- 
regard of unities of literary form and 
expression which, once perceived, defy par- 
tition. 

When Mr. Wiener observes, somewhat 
pessimistically: "It must be evident that 
biblical studies are in a deplorable condi- 
tion. One large body of students regards 
the Pentateuch simply as a collection of 
sermon texts; another, as a field for the 
practical application of the problem to 
'trisect a given verse/ " he is simply point- 
ing out that the deep superstition of the 
verse habit has a tendency to vitiate the new 
biblical learning as it did too often the old. 

83 



THE STUDY OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE 

It is important to remember that in the 
literary structure of the Bible we are pre- 
sented with certain organic and indestruc- 
tible unities which no legitimate partitive 
process can possibly reduce or destroy. 
There are poems, narratives, episodes, say- 
ings, connected paragraphs of teaching — 
there are books and even groups of books 
— the component elements of which belong 
together and inseparably cohere. To fasten 
upon these is gradually to get into line with 
the internal forward movement of Scripture 
in which it fulfils itself and ultimately 
exhibits its own principle of unity. Often 
literary form will serve to exhibit unity and 
carry the thought forward where mere 
verbal criticism would infallibly surmise a 
break in continuity. 

This is no place to discuss critical ques- 
tions or to set authorities over against each 
other in order to substantiate individual 
opinions. I venture to point out the fact 
that some of our ablest literary students of 
the Bible, on that basis alone, do not hesi- 
tate to antagonize the conclusions of the 
more technical critics on the moot point of 
unity. It is necessary at any rate to pay 

84 



STRUCTURAL STUDY OF THE BIBLE 

heed to the considerations which they urge. 
For example, Wellhausen affirms that in 
the seventh chapter of Micah, between 
verses 6 and 7, "there yawns a century. " 
Upon this statement Professor Moulton 
remarks: "To one who does not ignore 
literary structure it will be evident that 
what yawns between the verses is a change 
in dramatic speakers" ("Introduction to 
the Literature of the Bible," p. 7). We may 
instance Professor Moulton, as above, and 
Professor Genung ("Words of Koheleth," 
p. 162f), apropos of Professor Siegfried's 
partition of Ecclesiastes. Concerning this 
latter tour -de-force, Professor Genung says: 
"Of such critical ingenuity as this, the 
estranging feature is that it suggests some- 
thing made outside and put on" (ibid., 
p. 163). 

The arguments for the unity of Ecclesi- 
astes in this book and for the unity of Job 
in the author's earlier work, "The Epic of 
the Inner Life," are well worth reading. 
The remarks of Professor Petrie ("Growth 
of the Gospels," p. 8) on the need of an 
objective method of criticism are also per- 
tinent here. 

85 



THE STUDY OF TEE ENGLISH BIBLE 

Before passing to the consideration of 
grammatical structure one further question 
should be called up for brief discussion. 
It is the old question in a new form: "How 
near may we come in the literary apprecia- 
tion of the English version to ' sensing 5 the 
literary quality of the original? Have we 
one book in the original tongues and another 
in the English?" 

The answer to this question could be 
made a fascinating volume, in the hands of 
the right man, for it involves the incom- 
parable romance of the English Bible. We 
can but point out a few significant facts. 
The first and most significant fact of all is 
that the English language, as a classical 
tongue, was, in a very real sense, the crea- 
tion of the translated Bible. It is a curious 
coincidence, to say the least, that at the 
very time when the composite English 
tongue was in the process of passing from 
the language of the stable and kitchen, 
from the rude speech of the cowherd and 
the serving maiden, to broader and higher 
uses it should have been seized upon as the 
vehicle of translation for the book of all 
others which represented and conveyed the 

86 



STRUCTURAL STUDY OF THE BIBLE 

richest and most vital thought, together 
with the noblest literary style, of the ancient 
world. More than this, it is to be remem- 
bered, that, behind the English translation 
and effective in it was the Vulgate, a 
translation into the Latin which was the 
language of church and university, of 
ecclesiastic and scholar. It thus happened 
that our earliest translations were made 
during the first and most plastic period of 
English by men whose ears were attuned to 
the sonorous music of the Latin (itself Bible 
made), which, though degenerate from the 
point of view of its own classical period, had 
for generations been the vehicle both for 
scholarship and literary taste. The result 
was that the Bible made for itself, in the 
tongue of the translation, a medium of 
expression stamped uniquely with its own 
quality. Of no other translated book can 
it be said, to anything like the same degree, 
that it made and set the standard, per- 
manently, of the language in which it was 
translated. This fact alone is enough to 
show that the Bible, in the original and in 
the translation, in a sense peculiar to itself, 
is one and the same. 
7 87 



THE STUDY OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE 

Another consideration should not be 
overlooked. The very form in which the 
Bible was originally conceived lends it- 
self to effective translation. It deals 
throughout with ideas which are elemental 
and universal. An amazingly small pro- 
portion of its ruling ideas are restricted or 
provincial. It is uniquely timeless and 
cosmopolitan. It bears transplanting. It 
roots itself in every soil; it flourishes under 
every sky; it is at home in every climate. 
It is a book of mankind and of the world. 
Moreover, its style and mode of composi- 
tion lend themselves readily to translation. 
It is simple, vivid, concrete. Its imagery 
loses nothing in the change from one lan- 
guage to another; its most characteristic 
idioms pass from speech to speech without 
suffering damage. 

It may be and indeed is true that one 
must know something of the Orient in 
order to understand it, and must throw 
oneself, by the use of the historical imag- 
ination, into other lands and eras of time 
to appreciate it, but this is no less true of 
the English Bible than of the original. If 
one is capable of such appreciation at all, 

88 



STRUCTURAL STUDY OF THE BIBLE 

the desired illumination will fall on the 
open page of the great Book in the mother 
tongue. 

Less fascinating, from the viewpoint of 
its appeal to the imagination, but no less 
essential to the student and interpreter of 
the Bible, is painstaking study of the gram- 
matical structure which constitutes the 
framework and constitution of the thought. 

Most of us have come from the hand of 
the schoolmaster with only the vaguest 
notion of the meaning of grammar. That 
man has reached an exceptional degree of 
enlightenment who has outgrown the infan- 
tile notion that there is something arbitrary 
and sinister about the rules of language, 
as if they were the invention of the teacher, 
with a view to the tormenting of young 
minds. We are simply to recognize the 
fact that language is a rational product, and 
that the laws of expression in language ex- 
hibit and unfold the constitution of human 
reason. Language is reason addressing rea- 
son; interpretation is reason answering 
reason. When this fact is once grasped it 
becomes clear that the natural and inevi- 
table method of mastering a connected line 

89 



TEE STUDY OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE 

of thought expressed in language is to follow 
the natural sign posts which indicate the 
way along which thought has gone. The 
parts of speech and the structural arrange- 
ment of words are these sign posts. One is 
tempted to apologize for dealing with mat- 
ters so elementary, but many and varied 
experiences in dealing with the work of 
recognized authorities in interpretation (to 
say nothing of students) convinces me that a 
careful reconsideration of these elementary 
principles would not be without its uses 
even in the highest exegetical circles. 

The unit of study here is the paragraph, 
which consists of a series of propositions, 
each one the expression of a single idea, 
making up one consecutive whole of con- 
tinuous thinking. Every paragraph has a 
subject, which is a general field of thought 
about which something is said; and theme, 
which is something said about a subject. 
The theme is the organic center of the 
paragraph, and the entire paragraph, includ- 
ing every separate statement, is the un- 
folding of the theme. A subject may fit 
many paragraphs, since one may make many 
statements concerning the same subject; a 

90 



STRUCTURAL STUDY OF THE BIBLE 

true theme fits one paragraph only, since 
evidently one may say the same thing about 
his subject but once. The discovery of the 
theme is therefore the primary objective 
point in the study of a connected passage. 

Looking now at the grammatical struc- 
ture as a whole, it is evident that every 
paragraph consists (a) of main statements 
which are indicated by verbs in the in- 
dicative and imperative moods; and (b) 
subordinate statements indicated by par- 
ticiples and clauses introduced by conjunc- 
tive words. 

Verbs in the indicative mood always 
state facts. Subordinate clauses indicate 
accompaniment, purpose, reason, or explan- 
ation. Prepositions construct limiting or 
directive expressions. Relative clauses de- 
scribe either persons or things, or specify 
individuals as belonging to groups of persons 
or objects. They introduce, therefore, de- 
scriptive material. For, or because, indi- 
cates a reason for what precedes. In order 
that indicates the purpose of the nearest 
main statement; while therefore points to a 
conclusion drawn from a foregoing state- 
ment or series of statements. 

91 



TEE STUDY OF TEE ENGLISH BIBLE 

Most exegetical weakness, of which there 
is an appalling amount even among the 
learned, is due to the failure to distinguish 
between subject and theme and to the neg- 
lect of these plain, elementary facts of 
grammatical structure. The reader may, 
if he so chooses, put this matter to the test 
of experiment. Let him take down a half 
dozen representative commentaries and com- 
pare the amount of running comment verse 
by verse, often in neglect of the real struc- 
ture, with the amount of careful analysis 
in which the actual movements of the 
thought are followed, step by step, and the 
results of analysis gathered up in a theme 
which exactly seizes and expresses the vital 
and rational grip of the discussion. Meyer 
is lonesome in his superiority in this partic- 
ular, but his work is, of course, confined 
to the Greek; and his discussion is so intri- 
cate that the average student is discouraged 
by the very look of his pages. It is to be 
remembered, however, that the essential 
facts of structure pass, practically un- 
changed, from the original to the English 
and that a loose series of disconnected com- 
ments do not represent adequately the 

92 



STRUCTURAL STUDY OF THE BIBLE 

movement of well articulated thought. No 
interpretation is adequate or satisfactory 
which does not penetrate to the theme and 
grasp the articulation of the thought. 1 

In addition it ought to be said, and with 
appropriate emphasis, that, while in the end 
a reintegration in terms of the reader's own 
thought is demanded to follow such analy- 
sis, the thought of Scripture is so massive, 
so condensed, so pregnant with meaning, 
so illimitable in depth and reach, that it 
demands and w^ill endure a method of inter- 
pretation which involves dissection by the 
most drastic processes of verbal analysis. 
In fact, the only way to gain freedom in the 
thought of the Bible is to yield oneself with 
whole-souled devotion and energy to the 
literal mastery of its fundamental structure. 

In concluding this chapter I should like 
to point out the specific advantages of this 
underground structural work as an element 
in the method of dealing with the Bible as 
a whole and in its parts. 

1. By a careful and exact method we 
come to recognize the precise value and 
significance, in a complex of related impres- 

1 See Appendix, Note C. 

98 



THE STUDY OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE 

sions, of each separate item, not only in 
itself but in relation to the whole of which 
it forms a part. We have, therefore, in 
place of a vague and floating conception, 
lacking in clear-cut details, a group of 
definite intellectual and spiritual values set 
in a framework of logical connection- — our 
apples of gold are in baskets of silver. In 
other and more literal words, we have begun 
to understand a passage of Scripture. 

2. We have adopted the method of inter- 
rogating each particular portion of Scripture 
as to its own specific message. One great 
weakness in our dealing with the Bible is 
that we have a store of general pious obser- 
vations which, by a species of literary 
legerdemain, we make to appear as coming 
from any one of a number of unrelated 
passages of quite miscellaneous tenor. Just 
so long as we come no nearer to a passage 
than is necessary to catch its general drift 
or place it in the continent of thought where 
it belongs we shall miss its individual mean- 
ing and unique value. This really involves 
the loss of the passage itself. 

3. We have adopted a method which will 
infallibly result in the breaking up of care- 

94 



STRUCTURAL STUDY OF THE BIBLE 

less and superficial mental habits. When 
one has really studied, in this way, a single 
passage, taking down its structure and assim- 
ilating its thought from within the mind 
of the writer, and reconstructing it in the 
terms of one's own thought, any glib, super- 
ficial, haphazard treatment of great pas- 
sages becomes henceforth impossible. The 
deadly habit of carelessness has been 
broken. 



95 



THE STUDY OF THE BIBLE BY BOOKS 

In the primary sense a book is a given 
number of leaves or sheets intended for 
writing and bound together so as to form 
one whole. The word, by a natural exten- 
sion of meaning, comes to designate a con- 
tinuous and connected piece of writing 
which is spread upon leaves bound together. 
By another natural extension of meaning, 
it refers to a definite section of writing, 
which has a principle of unity of its own, as 
well as a connection with the larger writing 
of which it forms a part. The student will 
remember that the ^Eneid is divided into 
twelve books and the Odyssey into twenty- 
four. 

The books of the Bible are separate 
volumes or treatises, each having a dis- 
tinctive character of its own and an ascer- 
tainable principle of internal unity. We 
may go so far as to say that the term book 
is never applied to a section of Scripture 
except on the basis of undeniable struc- 
tural unity, even though it may consist of 

96 



STUDY OF THE BIBLE BY BOOKS 

the most diverse and contrasted elements. 
These are, at least, constructively unified 
(see remarks by Professor Cobern, Methodist 
Review, May, 1913, pp. 419, 420). 

The biblical book, therefore, presents it- 
self for study not merely as a convenient 
and manageable literary unit; but, since it 
incorporates into itself and raises to a higher 
unity a variety of elements, each one of 
which gains new significance by the rela- 
tionship, it possesses the charm and interest 
of the finished, artistic composition. Of 
this fact, and the consequent stimulus to 
the mind involved in it, unhappily few 
people are aware. Study of the Bible by 
books is the most direct and attractive path- 
way to its inner and secret charm. 

1. In beginning the study of a book of 
the Bible, as of any book, it is necessary 
to discover it. This discovery demands 
such a reading of it as leaves a distinct and 
permanent impression upon the mind. It 
involves a preliminary process of attention 
and identification. 

It is evident that the full appreciation 
of the distinctive elements which enter into 
the make-up of a book must be the outcome 

97 



THE STUDY OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE 

of prolonged study, but there are certain 
salient features which need to be seized upon 
at once, by sympathetic reading, as a pre- 
liminary to closer study. The book as a 
book, a distinct literary unit, is an imme- 
diate seizure of the mind through contin- 
uous reading. This "book- view" can be 
gained by no other process. 

One may make a detailed study of a book, 
word by word, and yet never grasp it as a 
distinct whole or feel the impact of its 
power in such a concrete way as to get and 
keep an individualized impression of it. 

I wish to place the most deliberate em- 
phasis upon the fact that a correct general 
impression of a book, which will serve as a 
framework to hold together and keep in 
proper order the details yielded by more 
finished study, is absolutely dependent 
upon the book's being allowed to stamp itself 
upon the mind by a process of continuous 
reading which brings its separate parts 
together in a single impression. The writer 
of a truly creative work thinks his book as a 
whole, and its expression of his idea is in 
the conjunction and climactic interplay of 
its parts. It is a manifest injustice to the 

98 



STUDY OF THE BIBLE BY BOOKS 

writer and his book, for it defeats his pur- 
pose and belittles the work of his hand, to 
study it in fragments. 

Two tendencies are to be strenuously- 
resisted. The first one is to postpone gen- 
eral impressions to the last, as if they were 
in the nature of exhaustive scientific gen- 
eralizations. This is to mistake entirely 
the nature of the impression to be sought. 
What is needed is the antecedent impression 
of wholeness. It is that peculiar appre- 
hension of the book received in the very 
process of gradual approach to it which no 
subsequent accumulation of detail can ren- 
der less vivid. It is, so to say, to get 
the "feel" of the book as it moves out to 
meet us as we draw near to it. There are 
several degrees of acquaintance with any 
object of study, such as a book or painting 
or statue, each one of which yields its own 
result for study. There is the glance of the 
casual passerby, which indeed misses much 
but infallibly catches something which the 
close student, deeply imbued with the sub- 
ject as such, cannot get. There is the com- 
prehensive preliminary survey of one who 
seeks for whole impressions apart from 

99 



THE STUDY OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE 

details. There is, finally, the diversified 
impression of one who has mastered detail 
in relation to the whole. 

The second temptation to be resisted is 
to resort to handbooks or manuals of intro- 
duction for the facts which go to make up 
a preliminary general impression. These 
facts may be entirely correct, but the way 
in which we obtain them substitutes a course 
of reading for true Bible study and someone 
else's impressions for our own. It is aston- 
ishing and humiliating to reflect that so 
many of our most sacred opinions are taken 
at second hand and how little direct and 
personal contact with the world of truth we 
ever get. First impressions, at least, in order 
that they may be living and real, should be 
our own, picked from the ground with our 
own hands. 

A book which is so constructed as to 
be a substitute for direct study should be 
shunned on principle. The use of such 
helps to study are apt to destroy the power 
of original work. Botany and geology 
should be studied in the field, chemistry in 
the laboratory, astronomy in the observa- 
tory. The Bible itself should be the field, 

100 



STUDY OF TBE BIBLE BY BOOKS 

the laboratory, the observatory, for the 
Bible student. 

2. The second step in book study is to 
develop or correct first impressions by sys- 
tematic cataloguing and analysis of its 
distinctive features. Books vary greatly 
in the number and quality of characteristic 
features, as well as in the grouping of them, 
but close observation will soon yield results 
in the recognition of words, sentences, 
order of narrative or discussion which are 
characteristic and hence definitive. 

It may be well to call particular atten- 
tion to the fact, which is of primary im- 
portance, that the Bible is the world's book, 
partly for the reason that it binds into one 
volume works of different men, living in 
different ages, dealing with different sub- 
jects and in a different way. These differ- 
ences are incorporated and presented in 
the various books. 

The natural method, therefore, of possess- 
ing oneself of this wealth of variety is by 
book study — letting each book tell its own 
story in its own way. We are certainly 
losers by the over-prevalence of the habit 
of promiscuous quotation on topical lines 

101 



THE STUDY OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE 

in which the individuality of authors and 
variations in the mode of apprehending and 
expressing ideas are blurred. The Bible 
ceases to be a literature and becomes a 
catena of quotations. As an experiment, 
let the reader undertake a careful compara- 
tive study of the three accounts of the 
Csesarea Philippi episode as given in Mark 
viii, 27-ix, 1, Matthew xvi, 13-28, Luke 
ix, 18-27. Let him read Mark's account 
first, making careful note (1) of the context 
involving marks of time, place, and occa- 
sion; (2) the wording of speeches; (3) the 
apparent motive and purpose of the narra- 
tive; (4) the distribution of emphasis; (5) the 
narrative style. Then, on the basis of careful 
observation of Mark, let him read Matthew 
and Luke and note clearly and definitely 
in detail the divergencies. One who has 
never pursued this method will be surprised 
to know how much keener his interest in 
the narrative will be, how many fascinating 
questions and illuminating suggestions will 
leap out of hiding places in a text to which 
his mind has become dull through the famil- 
iarity of routine reading. What is true 
of a limited section, like the one here se- 

102 



STUDY OF THE BIBLE BY BOOKS 

lected, is also true of any one of the books 
of the Bible. Instead of reading a life of 
Christ based upon an attempt more or less 
systematic to minimize variations in the 
accounts, let the reader study the Gospel 
of Matthew until the portrait of Jesus and 
the narrative of His life as Matthew beheld 
and interpreted them, stand out clearly in 
his mind. Then let him go through the 
same process with each of the four Gospels 
before attempting any combination into 
one continuous narrative. It is a safe pre- 
diction that the Bible will never again be 
the same to one who studies in this way 
even one book. It will not only rescue from 
oblivion that one book — it will send him 
out with the zest of a discoverer for further 
experiences of the same sort. 

3. The third advance in book study is to 
discover the organizing principle which 
gives the book its unity. This opens an 
important field of discussion, inasmuch as 
there are widely different modes of unity. 
Take three books, almost at random, like 
Isaiah, Proverbs, the Epistle to the Romans 
— each is a book, each in a real sense is a 
unity, but each is organized upon a totally 
s 103 



THE STUDY OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE 

different internal principle. No observant 
reader could pass from the book of Psalms 
to the book of Proverbs without recog- 
nizing that he has come into a new literary 
and spiritual continent. Moreover, no ob- 
servant reader could possibly be blind to the 
fact that the book of Proverbs is one book, 
characteristically different from all others 
in the Bible; and yet it consists, except in a 
few instances when there are connected dis- 
courses, of brief and unrelated aphorisms. 
Professor Moulton calls Proverbs a "mis- 
cellany of wisdom in five books'' (see Intro- 
duction to Proverbs in Modern Reader's 
Bible, pp. ix, f). This is a clear and sat- 
isfactory description, at once broad and 
definitive. 

We have already recognized the fact that 
our modern division into chapters and 
verses does not belong to the true organic 
structure and often is destructive of it. 
Chapter division, which neglects paragraph 
structure, and verse division in continuous 
prose are, from the point of view of inter- 
pretation, impossible and absurd. It is 
well to remind ourselves, at the same time, 
that our modern division and arrangement 

104 



STUDY OF THE BIBLE BY BOOKS 

of books is by no means final or absolute. 
The Hebrew canon consisted of twenty- 
four books where we have thirty-nine. 
This is a hint that there are larger unities 
binding different portions of the Bible to- 
gether than is recognized in our book divi- 
sion. The two books of Samuel, of Kings, 
and of Chronicles are in each instance to 
be considered single works. Ezra and Nehe- 
miah ought not to be separated in thought 
or in study. The group of books which 
we call the Minor Prophets was known 
among the Hebrews as the Book of the 
Twelve. These little books gravitated to- 
gether before the formation of the canon 
and have been inseparably united ever 
since. One might well ask: "What is the 
internal principle of unity, in this case, 
where there are differences of date, author- 
ship, and subject?" The answer to the 
question may perhaps be found in the 
following quotation from the book of Ecclesi- 
astes (quoted by George Adam Smith) : 

And of the Twelve Prophets may the bones 

Flourish again from their place, 

For they comforted Jacob 

And redeemed them by the assurance of hope. 

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THE STUDY OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE 

We must be prepared, therefore, for the 
utmost diversity in the matter of organiza- 
tion around a center of unity in the various 
books, but in every instance such a principle 
may confidently be sought. It is of vital 
importance to search for this constructive 
principle or center of unity, for when it is 
once found every portion of the book falls 
into place and gains new meaning in rela- 
tionship to the whole movement of thought. 
The student should not overlook the fact 
that the principle of unity is usually, with 
greater or less explicitness, given in the 
book itself, e. g., Isaiah vi, 3, Amos i, 2, 
Job i, 9, John xx, 31, etc. 1 

4. The fourth step in the study of a book 
is to distinguish the subordinate items in 
the carrying out of this central purpose and 
organizing idea. In other words, to rebuild 
the book with explicit reference of each 
part to the central idea. As a literary 
product the internal structure is more or 
less concealed. It is, at once, one of the 
highest functions of literary appreciation 
and one of the necessary steps toward the 
free assimilation of a writer's thought, to 

iSee Appendix, Note G. 

106 



STUDY OF THE BIBLE BY BOOKS 

lay bare and expose its inner structure 
which, as a matter of artistic technique, he 
is careful to conceal. To take an example 
outside the Bible, how many lovers of 
Tennyson's "In Memoriam" would be pre- 
pared to state offhand why canto cvi fol- 
lows cv; or cv, civ? There is a reason and 
one can neither understand the poem nor 
appreciate it fully who has not thought it 
through. 

The process of tracing out the construc- 
tion of a book on the basis of a recognized 
principle of unity may perhaps be best 
seen in its actual application to a book. 

In chapter xx and verse 31 of the Gospel 
of John the writer states the motive of his 
writing, which is seen to be the organizing 
principle of the entire book. A single, 
definite proposition undergirds and holds 
together the structure as a whole and in 
all its parts. 

But how are the parts related to the whole 
in the actual realization of unity in the diver- 
sity of a rich and complex literary work? 
Look again at xx, 31: "These are written 
that ye might believe that Jesus is the 
Christ, the Son of God; and that believing 

107 



THE STUDY OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE 

ye might have life through his name. 55 
It is evident that this statement involves 
far more than an abstract Christological 
thesis. Most of us have read the sentence 
as if it stopped at the semicolon. But, if 
the writer holds that belief in Jesus as the 
Christ will issue in "life" it is clear that 
the possession of life-giving power by Jesus 
is a part of his theme (see Clark: "The 
Christ from Without and Within/' Ch. n). 
The fact that the Gospel was written with a 
view to persuasion, and that the writer looks 
to the results of its acceptance as an element 
in the testing of its truthfulness, takes the 
Gospel out of the class of mere treatises on 
a given subject. 

Here then (in xx, 31) are the threads that 
are interwoven in the Gospel. 

A. The person and career of Jesus — the 
historical and biographical narrative — basis 
of the work. It is not to be forgotten that 
this historical narrative underlies the entire 
Gospel. John uses the narrative name 
"Jesus" without qualification or accompani- 
ment 248 times, an average of once in less 
than four verses. 

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STUDY OF THE BIBLE BY BOOKS 

B. A doctrinal interpretation of Jesus as 
Messiah and Son of God. 

C. The presentation of Jesus so inter- 
preted as the object of faith and the giver 
of life through faith. 

As a test of the correctness of this identi- 
fication of xx ? 31 as the key of the edifice, 
let us turn to the introductory passage of 
the Gospel (i, 1-18). Here at once, in spite 
of the abstract and philosophical form in 
which it is cast, the interweaving of the 
threads already discovered in xx, 31 appears. 
The historical note is struck clearly and 
strongly in verse 14 which is the center of 
the passage. It appears previously in verse 
11 and subsequently in verse 17 where the 
Word, spoken of at the beginning as eternal, 
personal, and divine (verse 1) and in verse 
14 as having become flesh, is identified with 
the historic Jesus, who is more specifically 
pointed out as having been testified to by 
John the Baptist, and rejected by those 
who were peculiarly His own. Whatever 
else may be said of the introductory section, 
the warp of it is the historical career of 
Jesus. 

Next, we become aware of the doctrinal 
109 



THE STUDY OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE 

interpretation of Jesus as, in His mission, 
the Christ; and, in His person, the Son of 
God. So far as this element is concerned, 
we might say that the prologue is the expan- 
sion of xx, 31 or that the latter is a conden- 
sation of the former. It will be noticed 
that the doctrinal interpretation is asserted, 
not proved, and we have no clue yet as to 
how the proof, which it is the author's 
declared intention to present, is actually 
carried out. But notice how the third 
thread appears in the prologue. In verse 
4 it is asserted that the Word is life to the 
world and light to men; that is, that in the 
Word man has the privilege of conscious 
communion with the infinite source of life. 
In verse 11 it is said that they who were 
peculiarly His own received Him not, and 
in verse 12 it is asserted that to those who 
did receive Him He gave the right to become 
children of God, who thus become the 
divinely begotten subjects of a new life. 

In other words, we may summarize these 
three aspects of the prologue thus : The Per- 
son, the Historic Manifestation, the Re- 
jection by unbelief, and Acceptance by 
faith of the Giver of Life. In verses 6, 7, 

X10 



STUDY OF THE BIBLE BY BOOKS 

and 15 John Baptist's independent testi- 
mony is urged as a reason for faith and in 
verses 14 (the parenthesis), 16, and 17, the 
actual experience of the disciples of the 
life-giving power of the Logos and Son from 
whose fulness they all received grace for 
grace, as they actually beheld the unveiling 
of His character, is also offered in evidence. 
It is thus apparent that the entire prologue, 
like xx, 31, is woven of historical narrative, 
doctrinal interpretation, and logically con- 
structed argument for the unique place and 
authority given to Jesus because of His 
career and doctrinal significance. 

To show how truly the key expression of 
the Gospel has guided us to the meaning of 
the book as a whole, even before we come 
to the main body of it, we have only to 
examine any careful analysis of the Gospel. 
For the purpose of independent comparison 
I append an outline taken from a work 
which does not attempt any schematic 
treatment of the prologue. It was prepared 
by Rev. A. Halliday Douglas, M. A., of 
Huntley, and appears in the volume on 
John, by the late Dr. Marcus Dods, in the 
Expositor's Bible series. 

Ill 



THE STUDY OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE 

The Prologue or Introduction, chapter I, 
1-18. 

Part I. The Manifestation of Christ's 
Glory in Life and Power, chapter I, 19-xn, 
36. 

1. Christ's Announcement of Himself and 
the Beginning of Faith and Unbelief, 
chapter i, 19-iv. 

2. The Period of Conflict, chapter v, 1- 
xii, 36. 

The Evangelist's Pause for Reflection, and 
Review of Christ's Teaching, chapter xn, 
36-50. 

Part II. The Manifestation of Christ's 
Glory in Suffering and Death, chapters 

XIII-XX. 

1. Moral Victory in Suffering: 

a. In Anticipation, chapters xiii-xvii 
(faith finally settled in the disciples, 
and unbelief cast out from among 
them). 

b. In the Actual Struggle, chapters 
xviii-xix (unbelief apparently vic- 
torious, faith scarcely saved). 

2. Actual Victory over Death, chapter 
xx (faith proved right, and unbelief 
condemned). 

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STUDY OF THE BIBLE BY BOOKS 

The Epilogue or Appendix, chapter xxi. 

One may also go beneath a general plan 
like this and find the same unity between 
the prologue and the rest of the Gospel in 
the common relationship of all the parts to 
xx, 31. The manifestation of Christ's 
glory culminates, first, in the resurrection 
of Lazarus (chapter xi); and, second, in 
His own resurrection (chapter xx). 1 

5. The fifth step in the study of a book is 
to relate it to the other cognate portions of 
Scripture. Books naturally tend to fall 
into classes, easily distinguishable from one 
another through peculiarities of literary 
construction or method, by subject matter 
or by doctrinal viewpoint. No book can 
be thoroughly studied except by compari- 
son with others of the same class. More 
than this, every book occupies a definite 
place in the history, both of life and of 
literature. It represents or embodies a 
phase of development; it has antecedents 
without which its origin cannot be under- 
stood; it has consequents without which its 
influence cannot be traced. No book can 
be exhaustively interpreted without includ- 

1 See Appendix, Notes E and F. 
113 



THE STUDY OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE 

ing in the reference both its origin and its 
influence. Every creative bit of great writ- 
ing produces other writings like itself and 
throws its seed thoughts into new historic 
situations to bear new harvests. Every 
new harvest harks back to the old as it leans 
forward to the new. For example, how 
impossible it is to understand the New Testa- 
ment without the Old, the Synoptic Gos- 
pels without the Epistles, and vice versa! 
The books of the Bible fall into groups, 
which demand consideration together and 
each book gathers new light from being 
placed and considered in company with its 
fellows. 

The book of Job is one of a group from 
which it cannot be separated in thought or 
feeling. The book represents a crisis in 
the development of Hebrew thinking about 
God. It belongs to what is known as the 
Wisdom Literature, which, in essence, was 
the application of religion as a principle 
of thought to the explanation of life and the 
solution of its problems. It stands over 
against Prophecy, which is divine revela- 
tion, as devout and free human meditation 

114 



STUDY OF THE BIBLE BY BOOKS 

upon life in view of the accepted belief in a 
living and righteous God. 

It is quite evident to one who reads the 
book of Job thoughtfully that the discussion 
to which the writer gives himself has already 
passed through several phases. The ques- 
tion with which it deals could never have 
arisen until the idea that goodness and 
prosperity are inseparably joined had be- 
come established in popular belief and been 
brought to the test of life, together with its 
bitter corollary that suffering and loss imply 
secret sin and a divine judgment upon the 
sinner. 

It is also evident that one cannot feel 
the full force of Job nor interpret the book 
adequately who does not come to it from 
the study of the book of Proverbs and such 
of the Psalms as may properly be classed 
with the Wisdom books, Moreover, the 
student should carry his study of this 
branch of Hebrew writing on through 
Ecclesiastes to the Apocryphal books of 
Ecclesiasticus and the Wisdom of Solomon. 

In the same way the book of Hosea cannot 
be understood without reference to Amos; 
nor can these two be clearly apprehended 

115 



THE STUDY OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE 

without outlining them against Isaiah on 
the one hand, and the rest of the Book of 
the Twelve on the other. Ezekiel, Daniel, 
and the Revelation embody a distinct type 
of religious writing, are closely related, both 
in constitution and historic connection, and 
should be studied together. The epistle to 
the Hebrews should be studied in connection 
with Old Testament rites and institutions 
as set forth in Exodus and Leviticus. By 
means of these continuous and comparative 
studies, the mind will increasingly become 
master of groups of related and mutually 
illuminative facts. Books which are alike 
in fundamental construction and in the 
general range of subject matter and yet 
present characteristic differences of accent, 
viewpoint, and historic setting, are the most 
suggestive commentaries upon each other. 

6. The sixth step in book study is to set 
each book in its appropriate place in the 
framework of history. 

The very statement of this principle 
opens a door through which a multitude of 
complex and difficult questions as to the 
origin, composition, and dates of the books 
of the Bible crowd in upon the mind. We 

116 



STUDY OF THE BIBLE BY BOOKS 

shall not attempt to deal with these con- 
troverted questions except to point out 
certain facts, a knowledge of which is a 
necessary preliminary to any close study of 
sources, together with certain cautionary 
remarks for the student who is approaching 
this region of storms. 

It is to be noted, first of all, that there are 
three ways in which a writing may be related 
to a given historical epoch: 

1. It may be a product of the literary 
activity in that period, a natural and 
spontaneous outgrowth, and hence an accu- 
rate revelation of its life. Reference here 
is not to history so much as to imaginative 
literature, poems, songs, informal narra- 
tives, prophecy, letters (e. g., it is ordinarily 
asserted that the most ancient portions of 
the Bible are the poems or songs quoted in 
the narratives). 

2. It may be the unadorned and unmodi- 
fied annals of the period, deposited in sanc- 
tuary, palace or public building for future 
generations. It may safely be asserted that 
no historical work of any magnitude has 
ever been composed except on the basis 
of such contemporary annals. These are, 

117 



THE STUDY OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE 

strictly speaking, historical sources. Suc- 
cessive generations of historians may work 
over such sources into new forms for new 
uses, but the contemporary annals remain 
permanently the substance and foundation 
of history. 

3. A writing may be in the nature of an 
historical review of the period in which its 
annals are so arranged as to bring out the 
significance of the period as a whole. Such 
a document, though it may be based upon 
contemporary sources, is necessarily com- 
posed at a certain remove from the actual 
historical situation by one sufficiently de- 
tached to estimate with clear insight and 
judicial spirit its significance and value. 
The facts, in such an instance, belong to the 
ancient annals, the contemporary docu- 
ments, the artless narrative or public record. 
The sifting, the grouping, the perspective, 
and the judgment belong to a later time. 
The truest insight into the meaning of an 
event or epoch does not necessarily nor even 
usually belong to the contemporary annalist. 
Distance of time as well as of space corrects 
the perspective. 

. Now, as a matter of plain, every day com- 

118 



STUDY OF THE BIBLE BY BOOKS 

mon sense we may reasonably expect to 
find in the Bible documents belonging to 
each of these three classes. Before illus- 
trating these in the Bible itself, I desire to 
adduce one instance from the outside. 
The illustration is particularly valuable 
because it occurs in a passage of straight- 
forward historical narration free from all 
theoretical bias. It shows how the histori- 
cal method is actually applied. 

The history of the reign of Sargon and 
his son, Naram-Sin (3700 B.C.), is con- 
tained in an omen-tablet bearing the signa- 
ture of Asshurbanipal (668-626 B.C.), and 
formed a part of the latter's vast library 
(see Rogers: "Religion of Babylonia and 
Assyria/ 5 p. 20f.) The historian says 
(McCurdy: "History, Prophecy, and the 
Monuments/' Vol. i, sec. 90): "The narra- 
tive portions are written in the style of 
modern Assyrians, and abound in locutions 
characteristic of the annals of the later king 
himself. But the fulness of minute details 
and the mention of localities not known to 
later times seem to preclude the supposition 
that the whole work was a modern inven- 
tion. Moreover, the very nature of the 
9 119 



THE STUDY OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE 

document, in which the motive is divided 
between the achievements of the two mon- 
archs and the occasions or circumstances of 
their enterprises, is little favorable to the 
hypothesis of a wholesale fiction. On the 
other hand, the fact that the kings do not 
speak in the first person, as is customary in 
the royal annals, gives color to the assump- 
tion, probable on all grounds, that the whole 
narrative was worked up for modern readers 
from contemporary notes preserved in the 
temple archives of the old dynasty of North 
Babylonia/' 

In the next section (91) the historian 
notes the discovery of actual contemporary 
records of the reign of Sargon and his suc- 
cessors of the same remote epoch. These 
discoveries confirm the conclusion drawn 
from the characteristics of the later narra- 
tive as to the historicity of the persons and 
at least a part of the events recorded. 

This passage from McCurdy is worthy of 
careful attention. It will be noticed that 
the case is extreme in two particulars: 1, 
The lapse of time between Sargon and 
Asshurbanipal is very great; 2, The linguis- 
tic marks of the ancient documents have 

120 



STUDY OF THE BIBLE BY BOOKS 

been practically eliminated in the modern 
recension. The evidences of historicity are 
(1) fulness of minute details, (2) mention of 
localities unknown later, (3) variation from 
later usuage in the addresses attributed to 
kings. The final testimony in the case is 
afforded by definite objective discoveries 
bearing upon the age itself. 

The careful application to the various 
books of the Bible of the method employed 
by Professor McCurdy in the case just 
instanced, will lead to most satisfactory 
results. It is necessary to distinguish be- 
tween contemporary annals, which are 
usually sources from which historical books 
are built up, and the reflections and deduc- 
tions of religious historians who have writ- 
ten books not for mere record but for pur- 
poses of teaching. It is important, there- 
fore, to get the viewpoint of the writer in 
order to feel the force of his presentation as 
a whole and to place the book correctly in 
relation to the historical movement to which 
it refers. 

This constructive work of getting the 
author's own view of the meaning of the 
history is logically antecedent to the inves- 

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THE STUDY OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE 

tigation of sources or the application of the 
principles of historical criticism. 

The conclusion to which I have thus been 
endeavoring to point the way is this: That 
apart from all questions of sources and ori- 
gins there is in the Bible as it now stands, 
in the chronological order of the books, a 
unity, order, and progress of such a sort 
that it deserves to be considered and allowed 
to make its own impression antecedent to 
all attempts, in the interest of archaeological 
exactness, to break it up into its component 
parts. As Professor Genung has ably stated 
the issue: "The tangled and dubious lines 
of its development have long ago met in 
unity and solution higher up, a solution 
which, on my scale of estimate, is far 
beyond the keen and well-nigh abnormal 
sense for discrepancies which at present 
prevails. The Bible has wrought its work 
as a final and definitive edition, whose 
worth is not necessarily invalidated by the 
enlarged and refined conceptions which later 
interpretation has infused into it" ("Wisdom 
Literature," p. 11). 

It is the part of wisdom, which sometimes 
lingers while knowledge grows, to begin 

122 



STUDY OF THE BIBLE BY BOOKS 

with the Bible as it now is — to deal with the 
completed product, in the light of which the 
process of its becoming may be more cer- 
tainly and safely studied. It would be well 
if we were all more deeply engaged with the 
Bible, as it is, and less, perhaps, with the 
Bible as it may have been. At any rate, it 
is a valid assumption that our books may 
be placed in a true genetic order with 
reference to the historical process out of 
which they have issued and of which they 
profess to be the record and true expression. 
7. The seventh task in book study is to 
relate the book to the Bible as a whole. 
As in duty bound I have insisted upon the 
necessity of thorough book study, the 
absorbed and concentrated attention to 
single books in order to the mastery of each 
book which contributes of its flavor and 
peculiar quality to the whole Bible. The 
importance of this processs can hardly be 
overestimated. Not by accident did it 
happen that the Bible came to completion 
through a long, gradual, historical process 
of which one of its separate books is a unit 
of crystallization. Each book, therefore, 
denotes a moment in a history everywhere 

128 



THE STUDY OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE 

full of meaning, which can be grasped only 
through the book which is the utterance of 
that moment. Or, to look at it from the 
viewpoint of revelation, each book is a tone 
of the voice of God speaking through the 
ages. But the matter must not be left here. 
In this case the whole is much more than 
the arithmetical sum of the parts. The 
Bible is composed of sixty-six books, but 
the result of bringing together these books, 
when seen in its entirety, is far greater than 
one could possibly expect who had studied 
any or all of the parts. The gradual emer- 
gence of a plan binding all the parts together, 
the many-sided architectural unity of a 
composite work made up of countless factors, 
wrought separately and fitted together, so 
that the meaning and intent of each are 
disclosed in the coming of all — this is the 
meaning of the Bible and its books. This 
discovery of the Bible, as it really is, for 
one's self is the reward of true Bible study. 

I should insist, therefore, not only that 
the student should constantly keep the 
whole Bible in mind in every part of it; he 
should constantly pass and repass by all 
open avenues, of which there are many, 

124 



STUDY OF THE BIBLE BY BOOKS 

from each book to the Bible as a whole. 
As has already been repeatedly intimated, 
the study p:> ocess passes constantly from 
details to wholes in which those details find 
completion and fulfilment. The true stu- 
dent must know the books of the Bible, but 
he must also know the Bible in the unity 
and perfection in which the books are 
framed and set. 



125 



VI 

THE STUDY OF THE BIBLE BY HISTOR- 
ICAL PERIODS 

The study of the Bible necessarily involves 
the development of the historical sense and 
interest. This is true not merely because 
certain portions of the Bible are specifically 
and formally historical but more because the 
Bible as a whole is at once the product and 
record of an historical process. One of our 
great writers" (D. W. Simon) has written a 
book entitled: "The Bible the Outgrowth 
of Theocratic Life." I should be disposed, 
while accepting this title as correctly express- 
ing the truth that the Bible is the immediate 
outcome of Israel's unique life, to broaden 
it so far as to take in another undoubted 
fact, that the Bible is the outcome of God's 
dealing with the human race as a whole. 

This idea may be a commonplace to the 
reader, but the discovery of it marked an 
epoch in the mental life of the writer, and 
its importance is so great as to deserve some 
mention. It is noteworthy, first of all, 
that Israel as a nation was gathered out of 

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TEE BIBLE BY HISTORICAL PERIODS 

the great Semitic family, the unique racial 
fiber of which, previously developed, forms 
the basis of the individual history of the 
" peculiar people. ' ' Without mankind there 
were no Semites, without Semites no Israel, 
without Israel no Bible as we have it. The 
history of Israel therefore, implies and 
gathers unto itself a significance from the 
total previous and contemporaneous history 
of mankind. 

Again, it is to be remembered that 
throughout its entire course of development 
the people of Israel, however, separated at 
the core by original ideas and principles of 
worship, was surrounded and pressed upon 
by the great nations of antiquity who not 
only conditioned outwardly the movement 
of events in which Israel was involved, but 
formed the historical matrix in which Israel's 
national ideas and purposes were moulded. 
Is it too much to assert that not a single 
line of the Old Testament would have 
assumed the form in which we have it, had 
it not been for the geographical situation of 
Palestine, which made Israel the frontier 
nation of the ancient world? No great 
nation of the Orient could look at another 

127 



THE STUDY OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE 

without sighting across the highlands of 
Judea. No nation could march against 
another without crossing Israel's territory 
or traversing her boundary. No more sig- 
nificant fact for the history of revelation 
could be imagined. 

In like manner the history of Christianity, 
from the advent of Christ on, was condi- 
tioned, in its modes of self-expression, in 
teaching and institutions, by the fact of its 
inception in the imperial era. It is a fact 
of history as well as of doctrine that Rome is 
the "Babylon" of the New Testament. 

But there is another and still deeper 
reason why we are to consider the Bible 
to be the outcome of universal history, the 
product of universal Providence. No for- 
mal narrative of historic events in the va- 
rious biblical eras could begin to give an 
account of the forces and influences which 
have gone to the making of the Bible. In 
its innermost essence the Bible is the re- 
sponse of the human spirit to the Spirit 
of God. While, in its immediate creation 
and publication, it is the outcome of that 
unexampled Hebraic sensitiveness to spirit- 
ual impressions, which culminates in the 

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TEE BIBLE BY HISTORICAL PERIODS 

world's supreme Teacher, yet, all the way 
along, the fact runs more deeply and spreads 
more widely than this exclusive reference to 
Israel would imply. The Bible represents 
the essential response of the human spirit 
to God as it represents the universal mes- 
sage of God to the spirit of man. There is 
throughout Scripture the deep undertone 
of universal humanity which is so much 
more than national consciousness or indi- 
vidual insight. That which is implied but 
not spoken, taken for granted but not 
formally enforced in Scripture, are those 
universal and fundamental convictions 
which are not the exclusive property of 
Hebrew or Christian but belong to man, as 
such, made in the image of God. Without 
such a context and inwrought structure of 
universal principles, the Bible would be unin- 
telligible. Therefore, the Hebrew priest, 
prophet, and sage, the Christian apostle and 
teacher, even the Lord Jesus Himself, each 
in his own order, spoke both for and to 
universal man, taking his stand firmly upon 
elementary truths acknowledged by all nor- 
mally constituted men. Such being the 
case, by every implication of its nature and 

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constitution the Bible is set in the midst of 
universal history which is its context, essen- 
tial to the meaning of the text. The Bible 
cannot be studied apart from history. 

At this point three questions emerge: 
What is history? What is the meaning of 
history? How shall we get at the essential 
and vital matters which are involved in 
history? 

1. What is history? 

Herman Grimm, in his life of Michael 
Angelo, has said that "history is the record 
of events in relationship to great men." 
It is more than this, for men who are not 
great have a part and place in history. 
But the two elements, events and persons, 
in their mutual relationship constitute the 
main factors of which history is the record. 
Approximately, at least, personality is the 
source of the moulding forces which make 
history — events are occurrences in which 
those unseen forces issuing from personality 
embody and realize themselves. Men, be- 
cause they are so and so, do such and such 
things; they build cities, they drain swamps, 
they sow and reap, they sail the seas, they 
fight battles, they form nations. Persons 

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TEE BIBLE BY HISTORICAL PERIODS 

cause events, events affect persons and 
immediately cause other events, and so the 
endless succession goes on. History, there- 
fore, is the continuous record of the 
thoughts, deeds, and experiences of men. 

2. What is the meaning of history? 

The attempt to answer this question car- 
ries us at once into a totally different region. 
We seek no longer a procession of persons, 
a simple, continuous flowing panorama of 
events. History breaks up at once, under 
the scrutiny which seeks for meanings and 
values in the process of ages, into a complex 
of separate movements, each having a dis- 
tinct quality, explanation, and end of its 
own. That these have a relationship to 
each other and that all are gathered up into 
a comprehensive unity involving ultimate 
explanations applicable to the whole as well 
as to the parts we may be very certain. 

But history cannot be understood in this 
sense without a philosophy of history, and 
a philosophy of history is impossible without 
a comprehensive view of man, the world, 
and human life. For, not to carry the dis- 
cussion too far, a search for a standard of 
value in history, to which reference may be 

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made in estimating persons and events, 
brings us at once face to face with ultimate 
questions. What constitutes the signifi- 
cance of an event? The instant answer 
would be: Its bearing upon human life. 
What is the significance of human life? 
If there be any reply to this question it must 
be this: The absolute value of personality 
gives its significance to human life. Man 
is a personal being, capable of self-determin- 
ation to moral ends — and the realization of 
those ends, through the exercise of freedom, 
in events gives its meaning to history. As 
Professor Bavinck has said ("Philosophy of 
Revelation/' p. 133): "If history is to be 
truly history, if it is to realize values, uni- 
versally valid values, we cannot know this 
from the facts in themselves, but we borrow 
this conviction from philosophy, from our 
view of life and of the world — that is to say, 
from our faith." 

In other words, in the study of history we 
find it not only a catalogue of persons and 
events, but principles, laws, eternal truths 
in accordance with which men must act and 
events fall out. In history we find not only 
men great or small, and events, more or less 

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THE BIBLE BY HISTORICAL PERIODS 

important, but the natural and moral orders, 
the world and God. 

It is impossible to appreciate or even to 
understand the Bible without grasping the 
Bible conception of history. That concep- 
tion involves two convictions. 

1. That God is active in human history 
as well as man. The Bible professes to be 
the record of revelation, that is, of the deal- 
ings of God with men for the purpose of 
making Himself known. In one aspect of 
it, the entire Bible might be brought under 
the caption, "What hath God wrought !" 
It would be possible so to select and marshal 
Scripture statements in such way as to 
define history in the terms of an absolute 
divine sovereignty. This would make 
God the determining factor in history; His 
all-seeing purpose, His far-reaching power, 
His undefeatable will, condition, and control, 
the entire cosmic process which is His work 
and utters His message throughout. This 
gives history a meaning in that it has a 
personal and intelligent Cause, a constantly 
present and active guiding and controlling 
Power, and a predetermined end. 

2. The Bible teaches also, and with no 

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less emphasis, that man is a real cause and 
creator of his own history. The government 
of the world is a moral government, and 
the relationship of God and man is a rela- 
tionship of persons in a moral and spiritual 
order mutually adjusted through a natural 
order which is the ground and theater of the 
activities of both God and man. 

God conditions Himself both in nature, 
where He brings Himself under a self-im- 
posed law of uniformity, and in the life and 
history of man, who has been made a 
free personality. Principal Fairbairn says 
("Philosophy of the Christian Religion," 
p. 184): "This authority [viz., God's] must, 
in the ultimate analysis, be ideal, i. e., an 
authority which does not repose on mere 
strength or physical might, but makes its 
appeal to the reason, and rules by governing 
men from within, by the categorical imper- 
ative which speaks to the conscience, and by 
the persuasion which constrains the will to 
seek the better part." 

And George Adam Smith with fine insight 
says (apropos of Isaiah xlii, 13-17): "The 
highest moral ideal is not, and never can be, 
the righteousness that is regnant but that 

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THE BIBLE BY HISTORICAL PERIODS 

which is militant and agonizing" (Isaiah, 
Vol. ii, p. 139). 

Therefore it is that in the Bible we hear 
the voice of God not only as one who rules 
but as one who pleads. Life is represented 
as a battlefield of opposing forces in which 
God is sometimes hard bestead (Isaiah 
lxiii, 1-9); His plans are thwarted, His 
purposes of grace delayed and even (as in 
the case of Israel at the Exile) defeated, 
His very will and love denied and betrayed. 
To the formal and precise philosophic mind 
this may seem extremely crude and an- 
thropomorphic, but it has the distinct 
advantage of being in harmony with the 
facts and of adding earnestness and dignity 
to life. The clear recognition of the fact 
that God enters human history under the 
conditions of that history is necessary in 
order to understand how inevitably, as a 
result of God's self -limitation, history breaks 
up into periods. 

God is supreme, and ultimately God's 
nature and will must be the touchstone of all 
events; otherwise history has no beginning, 
middle, or end worthy the name. But 
God's will is done through a process which 
10 135 



THE STUDY OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE 

involves a rational freedom on the part of 
God's creatures, its use and its abuse, its 
guidance, conquest, and restoration. Thus 
God's purpose moves forward by degrees, 
advancing from stage to stage of completion 
in an educative, redemptive, militant, moral 
process. 

3. How shall we get at the essential and 
vital matters which are involved in history? 

History breaks up into periods, into a 
series of movements punctuated by events 
in which those movements originate and 
eventuate. History is a drama consisting of 
acts and scenes which move forward to a 
denouement which is the adequate outcome 
of the whole. 

To quote Professor Bavinck again: 
"There is no history without division of 
time, without periods, without progress and 
development" (op. cit., p. 141). 

It is therefore evident that in order to 
grasp the meaning of history at all we must 
recognize the fact that it does consist of 
periods, single movements, each related to 
the whole and contributing to it, but having 
a distinct principle of internal unity, a char- 
acter and physiognomy of its own. 

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THE BIBLE BY HISTORICAL PERIODS 

The period, which is a relatively complete 
and consistent unit, is the natural approach 
to the study of history, and that for a num- 
ber of reasons, (a) There is, to begin, the 
practical every-day matter of interest. I 
have consorted much with teachers and 
students and other supposedly intellectual 
persons, and I have come to the conclusion 
that few men are born with any developed 
taste for history. What is far more serious, 
most men lose what taste they originally 
possess through improper or at least inade- 
quate methods of training. In many in- 
stances the native taste for history dies of 
too much "compendium." Undoubtedly 
outline studies are a necessary element in 
elementary training, but to stop with bird's- 
eye views is to stunt or slay the faculty 
of historic appreciation. One has only to 
think of the way in which conciseness is 
attained — in the majority of instances — by 
reducing the whole narrative to a chain of 
dated events, together with a catalogue of 
distinguished persons and a thin and juice- 
less text of commonplace description. I can 
imagine that few penances could be more 
severe than to force one to read contin- 

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THE STUDY OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE 

uously the ordinary school compendium of 
general history. 

In contrast here place the historical novel, 
with its intense dramatic atmosphere, its 
fascinating swiftness of movement, its sharp- 
ness of outline and vividness of color. 
There are gentlemen now alive who owe 
whatever real understanding they have of 
English history to William Shakespeare and 
Walter Scott. Wherein lie the power and 
fascination of the historical novel or drama, 
as compared with the ordinary compendium 
of history? At the bottom lies the fact that 
the novelist or dramatist chooses a com- 
paratively brief period of history with which 
to deal and fills it with light and color by 
bringing it near to the mental eye. He por- 
trays the period with a wealth of descriptive 
detail. The historical romance or drama 
is the product of the historical imagination, 
one of the rarest and finest of intellectual 
gifts. That gift, the ability to see and 
reconstruct the past, is in its creative form 
a native talent, but it may be cultivated. 
The imagination is kindled. And the imag- 
ination is kindled by contact with the facts 
in which the past is disclosed. 

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TEE BIBLE BY HISTORICAL PERIODS 

Herein lies the value of visits to historical 
spots and the viewing of historical relics. 
They bring one into immediate contact with 
the past and stimulate to actual vision of its 
concrete reality. The writer who would 
make the past live again in his imagination 
must move into the period and live there. 
He becomes acquainted with the men and 
women who lived then, he follows every clue 
which discloses their characters, motives, 
aims, and achievements. He studies each 
event. He lives each scene over again. 
He enters into the homes of the people, 
studies their dress, their customs, their 
modes of speech. He becomes the adopted 
contemporary of a far-off age, until he 
actually sees it in form and color. His 
imagination is afire with its splendor and 
power. He dips his pen in the very glow 
and substance of it. I am convinced that 
the real power of history is to be gained 
through the mastery of historical detail 
held with just regard to unities of connection 
and movement and imaginatively conceived. 
This must of necessity mean the study of 
periods, limited and defined movements, 

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THE STUDY OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE 

which can be brought near and illuminated 
in detail. 

Carlyle has a very suggestive sentence 
which is pertinent here. He says of Prin- 
cess Wilhelmina's Diary ("Life of Frederick 
the Great/' Vol. 11, p. 4, London Ed.): 
"Wilhelmina's narrative, very loose, date- 
less or misdated, plainly wrong in various 
particulars, has still its value for us; human 
eyes, even a child's, are worth something, 
in comparison to human want-of-eyes, which 
is too frequent in history books and else- 
where." Eyes to see, in the historical 
sense, depend upon coming close enough 
to the actual life of the past to make it 
alive. One sees that which has the vivid- 
ness and color, the actuality and perspective 
of real life. 

(b) There is another reason why the study 
of history in periods is valuable. The mean- 
ing of history, as a whole, is to be found 
in these separate and individualized move- 
ments which blend together, but do not 
lose their separate individuality in the gen- 
eral process. And, in a very real sense, 
the meaning of universal history, the under- 
standing of the factors which make it up, 

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TEE BIBLE BY HISTORICAL PERIODS 

the visualizing of the process are to be dis- 
covered and attained in the study of sepa- 
rate periods. John Jay Chapman ("Learn- 
ing/ 5 etc., p. 11) has said of human thought 
what may almost be said of all human 
events: "In fact, human thought does not 
advance, it only recurs. Every tone and 
semi-tone in the scale is a keynote; and 
every point in the universe is the center of 
the universe; and every man is the center 
and focus of the cosmos, and through him 
passes the whole of all force, as it exists and 
has existed from eternity; hence the sig- 
nificance which may at any moment radiate 
out of anything. n 

It is not too much to say that without 
the profound study of some one great 
period a man can never be at home in 
history, while with it he can never be al- 
together a stranger in any epoch or move- 
ment. The prolonged and minute study 
of a single period will be found to be worth 
all that it can cost of patience and toil. 
Many will find it the open door to scholar- 
ship and philosophic insight. 

This for the philosophy of historical study 
by periods. 

141 



THE STUDY OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE 

In the practical task of mastering any 
period, the student will do well first to 
acquaint himself with the main biblical 
periods and the relationships of the various 
books to them. Some earnest and careful 
students of the Bible seem not to have dis- 
covered this interesting historical frame- 
work. One can note where the historical 
books begin and end so as to frame together 
the external history. For example the 
Hexateuch covers from the creation of man 
to the death of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, 
and reaches over into the next period by 
the mention of Phineas, the grandson of 
Aaron (Joshua v, 33). The book of Joshua 
records also the death of Joshua (xxiv, 29), 
and in the following verses summarizes the 
history through the lives of the contempo- 
raries of Joshua who survived him. The 
book of Judges (i, 1) is linked with that of 
Joshua (xxiv, 29) and carries the history 
forward to the destruction of Benjamin and 
the marriage of the surviving remnant. In 
xxi, 25, the history of the period is sum- 
marized. 

The book of First Samuel begins in the 
period of the Judges and in the person of 

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TEE BIBLE BY HISTORICAL PERIODS 

Samuel marks the transition to that of the 
Kings. The two books of Samuel begin 
with the birth of the Prophet- Judge (1 
Samuel, i) and end with the plague of the 
numbering (2 Samuel, xxiv), one of the 
events of David's later life. The books of the 
Kings begin with the old age and death of 
David, give the reign of Solomon somewhat 
in detail, recount the parallel histories of 
the two kingdoms until the downfall of 
Samaria (2 Kings, xvn), and then confine 
their attention to the Southern Kingdom 
until the siege and fall of Jerusalem (2 
Kings, xxv, 21). Two additional notices 
are supplied, one (2 Kings, xxv, 22-26) 
narrating in brief the events which culmi- 
nated in the hegira of survivors to Egypt, 
and the other (xxv, 27-30) the later expe- 
rience of Jehoiachin in captivity. 

The books of Chronicles begin with a 
rapid summary of early history by means of 
lists of names and then strike into later 
history at the battle of Gilboa which 
resulted in the death of Saul and the end 
of his house (1 Chronicles x). These books 
record the reigns of David and Solomon to 
the death of the latter and the division 

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THE STUDY OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE 

(2 Chronicles x), thereafter giving the 
history of the Southern Kingdom alone 
down to the end of the exile (2 Chronicles 
xxxvi). Here the narratives of Ezra and 
Nehemiah take up the story. 

At this point it will be easy to form con- 
nection with the New Testament by means 
of the latest events of the Old Testament 
and the earliest of the New, giving the 
limits of the inter-Testamental period which 
the student will be surprised to find so short. 
Through the succession of High Priests, in 
the Old Testament and the Apocrypha and 
by means of the Kings of the Hasmonaean 
dynasty reaching down to Herod, who ended 
the family by wholesale slaughter and 
inherited its power, we reach the birth of 
Christ and the beginning of the new era. 
These instances are enough to illustrate 
the point now being urged, that one can 
discover an easy entrance into an under- 
standing of the biblical periods through an 
analysis of the historical books together 
with a tabulation of the historical notices 
in books not strictly historical. The books 
of Psalms and the writings of the prophets 
all supply interesting historical notices. 

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TEE BIBLE BY HISTORICAL PERIODS 

It will be noticed that the turning point 
from one era into another is usually the 
birth or death of some distinguished person 
or an event which brings about social or 
political change. Usually important tran- 
sitions are marked by the beginning or end- 
ing of books. 

Again, the student should notice how, on 
the very surface of the history, the division 
into epochs is marked with clear lines. For 
example, taking the social and political 
organization into consideration we have the 
following familiar division: 1, The Patri- 
archal Age; 2, The Age of the Judges; 3, 
The United Kingdom; 4, The Divided 
Kingdom; 5, The Exile; 6, The Return; 
7, inter-Testamental; 8, The Life of Christ; 
9, The Founding and Expansion of the 
Church. This division may be sub-divided 
so as to bring in the Bondage in Egypt, the 
Wandering, the Conquest, etc. 

Or, one may take the nations surrounding 
Israel and influencing her history as the 
basis of division. Then the succession of 
empires on the world's stage forms a majes- 
tic framework for the drama of Israel. We 
would then have for the later history, the 

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TEE STUDY OF TEE ENGLISH BIBLE 

Babylonian, Persian, Greek, and Roman 
periods, which would bring us into the very- 
conditions into which Christianity came. 

Instead of these divisions one might take 
the biblical period as a whole, beginning, 
for a background, with the succession of 
Oriental empires and setting the biblical 
history against it. The succession would 
be: 

Babylonia 4000- 2000 b. c. 
Assyria 2000- 606 " " 
Egypt 1550- 525 " " 

Chaldsea 626- 536 " " 
Persia 559- 331 " " 

Greece 594- 146 " " 

Rome 753 b. c-476 a. d. 

We can relate these histories together by 
connecting Hammurabi of Babylon and 
Abraham cir. 2000 b. c. In this same con- 
nection one can place the approximate date 
of Moses at 1500 b. c. and that of David 
at 1000. The biblical period, as a whole, 
may be dated from Abraham (2000 b. c.) 
to the death of John the Evangelist (100 
a. d. cir. cf. Accession of Trajan 98 a. d.). 
The schemes of division thus far suggested 
are more or less formal and external, based 

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THE BIBLE BY HISTORICAL PERIODS 

upon the outward movement and political 
articulation of the history. The entire 
mass of material may be handled in a 
wholly different way. For example, atten- 
tion may be concentrated upon Israel as a 
nation and in her national life. We should 
have something like this: 1, The Period of 
Preparation; 2, The Period of Development; 
3, The Period of Decline; 4, The Period of 
Restoration. Into this scheme the era of 
the New Testament may be fitted as 5 * 
The Period of National Extinction. 

It is to be remembered that in each 
suggested division into epochs a partic- 
ular method of organizing and viewing 
the historical material is involved. This 
plasticity of history to various methods of 
treatment makes historical study endlessly 
fascinating. One can, for example, deal 
with the entire mass of historical material 
relating to Israel with sole reference to the 
coming of Christ, giving three great periods : 
1, The Period of Preparation (up to the 
Birth of Christ); 2, The Period of Realiza- 
tion (Life and Ministry of Christ); 3, The 
Period of Application (founding of Chris- 
tian church). The history of Israel has 

147 



THE STUDY OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE 

also been divided into three great epochs 
by reference to her training for work in the 
world (by Dr. D. R. Breed, "History of 
Preparation of the World for Christ"): 
1, The Period of Inclusion; 2, The Period 
of Seclusion; 3, The Period of Diffusion. 

It is particularly desirable that beginners 
in historical study should recognize the fact 
that ways of dealing with historical material 
are endlessly various. The study of his- 
tory is kaleidoscopic in the variety which it 
presents both of form and color. 

It now remains to point certain guiding 
principles in the study of a single historical 
period and to illustrate by a concrete 
instance. 

1. The limits of the period must be set 
and the period itself set in the framework 
of adjacent periods. 

As has already been indicated the advent 
of some signal personality or the occurrence 
of some marked event or the definite emer- 
gence of some new force marks the change 
from era to era. Of course, the flow of 
events is continuous, and sometimes the 
transition to a new era is imperceptibly 
conducted so that the discovery that a 

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TEE BIBLE BY HISTORICAL PERIODS 

change has taken place comes with a shock 
of surprise. Usually, however, the change 
is clearly perceptible. 

2. Next one should make a careful study 
of events, political and social, with special 
reference to causes and effects. 

There are two reasons why the dramatic 
element, that is, the study of the bearing 
of actions and events upon each other should 
be introduced. In the first place, it is 
necessary, in order to know the meaning 
of any single event, to place it in the chain 
of causal connection. The "why 55 of an 
occurrence is a part of the "what" of it; 
so also are the results which flow from it a 
disclosure of its real nature. One must 
work into an event from the past and out 
of it into the future in order to understand 
it. 

Another reason for attending carefully 
to this matter is that it corrects the per- 
spective in which we see the relationship 
of small and great. No one can possibly 
estimate justly and with nice appreciation 
the importance of an event until one knows 
with what results it is fraught. It is a 
commonplace of historical philosophy that 

149 



THE STUDY OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE 

great movements begin obscurely. With- 
out the measuring line of consequences the 
great importance of certain seeming trifles 
could never be known. 

3. A third and important as well as fas- 
cinating work is the detailed study of lead- 
ing persons who have stamped themselves 
upon the history of the period. 

To many people who have read history 
only in the gross historical persons are sim- 
ply pegs upon which to hang dates and 
events. If such a student happens to have 
a retentive memory he will know a great 
many names, a great many dates, and a 
great many events. It is the greatest 
delusion in the world to suppose that this 
involves or implies a knowledge of history. 
Names, dates, events are related to history 
in the real, vital sense as ink impressions 
on a printed page are related to the ideas 
expressed. They symbolize the personal- 
ities, the forces, the processes which have 
existed, which have operated, which have 
taken place in the world's life. To know 
history is to know the men who have lived 
in the past. It is to know why they have 
acted as they have done. It is to know 

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TEE BIBLE BY HISTORICAL PERIODS 

the causes and results of their actions. 
What kind of a man was David of Israel, 
Henry VIII of England, Philip II of Spain? 
It is not enough to know when and where 
each of these men lived and reigned. We 
wish a vitalized, concrete portrait of each. 
We must actually know the men. 

Now this knowledge can come only by 
prayer and fasting, in an accommodated 
sense. It means the close study of a man's 
life, a minute search for characteristics and 
motives, a whole-souled attempt to get 
under the surface into his mind and heart. 
We must get close to the man and follow 
every clue to his personality until the secret 
of his life is uncovered before us. 

4. A fourth step in the study of a period 
is to get a true view of its ruling ideas. 
These are embodied in various ways in its 
laws and institutions, in its literature, 
philosophy, and art. It will be seen that 
the history of mankind has worked out in 
concrete form in successive periods certain 
ruling ideas. One age stands apart from 
another in the predominance in its life of 
this idea or that. Just as nations embody 
and realize certain great organic principles, 
11 151 



THE STUDY OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE 

so epochs of history possess distinct and 
discernible peculiarities, which, once recog- 
nized, beome characteristic and definitive. 
Let us illustrate these remarks by a brief 
glance at a single period. 

The so-called "Roman Period" in the 
history of Israel extends, according to the 
accepted treatment of it, from 63 b. c, a 
date which is signalized by Pompey's con- 
quest of Jerusalem, to the overthrow of 
the same city at the hands of Titus in 70 
a. d. This period follows the Maccabean 
and in its leading characteristics is the out- 
come, in part, of general conditions which 
brought the civilized world under the con- 
trol of Rome and, in part, of internal con- 
ditions of Israel resulting from the revolt 
against the Seleucids and the temporary 
establishment of Jewish independence. An 
interesting point of connection is found in 
the striking fact that in the preceding 
epoch John Hyrcanus forced the Idumeans 
to become Jews and that the following 
period is dominated from beginning to end 
by the Herodian family who were Idumeans. 

The center of interest in this period, from 
the viewpoint of Jewish history is undoubt- 

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THE BIBLE BY HISTORICAL PERIODS 

edly Herod the Great. From the moment 
when, as a young man, fired with an hered- 
itary ambition, he made his sensational 
attack upon the outlaws in their strong- 
hold in the Valley of Doves to his tragic 
and bitter end, just within the Christian 
era, the strange and sinister personality of 
Herod dominates his epoch. He was merely 
a petty king, an appointee and servant of 
Rome, without power to coin any but 
copper money; he was at heart barbarian 
and pagan; he was insanely ambitious and 
murderously jealous of any who might 
possibly undermine his power, limited and 
petty as it seems, in any wide view of world- 
politics, to have been; he misunderstood 
and mistreated his subjects; he was hated 
by them with a hatred that knew no bounds; 
he slew his own happiness and murdered 
his own peace and died in the blackness of 
utter despair — and yet, for nearly forty 
tumultuous years he held a key -position in 
the world's life and was always to be reck- 
oned with by any emperor, general or what- 
not who essayed to gain and keep power in 
the Roman Empire. At least twice his 
hand alone turned the current of events 

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TEE STUDY OF TEE ENGLISH BIBLE 

into new channels — Julius Caesar, Augustus, 
Mark Antony, Cleopatra, each in turn 
felt the iron beneath the velvet glove of 
diplomacy he always wore with those 
mightier than he. The career of Herod 
touches with tragic intensity this entire 
period. The student of it should first of 
all master the facts of his life and try to get 
some insight into his baffling character. 
Few people seem to have any conception of 
the complexity, the greatness, the folly, the 
misery of Herod. 

Then, around him, were strange and 
fascinating men and women. Nicolas of 
Damascus, subtle politician and scholarly 
sychophant; Herod's viperous sister, Salome; 
indeed, the whole seething mass of intriguers 
who filled his court and formed his personal 
following, invite to study. 

Next to these dominant personalities, is 
to be studied the social and religious life of 
this period. We are to go back into the 
preceding time and note the results of the 
political success as well as the religious 
triumph of Judaism as represented in the 
Hasmonean house. We are to note the 
growth of parties. We are to watch the 

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TEE BIBLE BY HISTORICAL PERIODS 

emergence of new and strange ideas. In 
this period of unrest and transition, of 
reaction and rapid change, of political wire- 
pulling and religious fanaticism, all the 
conditions are found into which the Christ 
came. The one dominating counter-cur- 
rent which met the teaching of Jesus at the 
beginning and accomplished the tragedy of 
His rejection and death was the union of 
politics and religion in the perverted Mes- 
sianism of His day which began in the 
Maccabean and was continued and devel- 
oped in the Herodian epoch. 

In the literature of these adjacent periods, 
the Book of Jubilees, the Psalter of Solomon, 
etc., one finds these ruling ideas expressed. 
The period from Nehemiah to Christ has 
sometimes been called an "Age of Silence" — 
no period could be imagined more articulate 
and vocal. There is Babel rather than 
silence. I would remind the reader that 
the one great source book for this period, 
aside from the contemporaneous literatures 
already mentioned is Josephus. He should 
read the Apocryphal books of Maccabees, 
then the Antiquities and the Jewish War 
as these touch upon the career of Herod, 

155 



THE STUDY OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE 

then the Apocryphal and Messianic liter- 
ature of the time; finally, a comprehensive 
and spirited history of Rome during the 
hundred years before and after Christ. 
First of all build a framework of dates and 
events so that the period may be identified 
and placed. Then into the bare framework 
so constructed, the results of prolonged and 
minute study may be set, until, finally, the 
imagination wakens to vision and one is at 
home in the history. This is the delight 
of historical study. To master even one 
epoch in this way is to gain, to a degree, 
the culture and enrichment which the study 
of history has to give. 



156 



APPENDIX 

A. The Terms Intensive and Cumulative 

Several times in the text the terms "intensive" 
and "cumulative" were used with reference to the 
organization of the student's life. A brief ad- 
ditional discussion of the meaning of these terms 
and their place in the argument may not be out of 
place. By intensive study is meant the close cul- 
tivation, by continuous application, of a limited 
field. By cumulative study is meant a method of 
conserving results so that one becomes a growing 
student by the progressive mastery of continually 
enlarging fields of knowledge. 

In attempting to link together these two appar- 
ently unattached principles, may I premise that they 
are more intimately related than at first appears. 
Mastery of one field of knowledge, in so far as this 
is possible, is in a very real sense the mastery of 
all. The pathway to true power is by the inten- 
sive cultivation of a defined tract by a persistent 
and resolute grappling with its characteristic prob- 
lems. The mastery of method, the conquest of 
mental laxity and weakness of will, the acquirement 
of skill in handling details, and persistence in meet- 
ing and overcoming difficulties — all the distinctive 
qualities of the man of power may best be attained 
by intensive work in a rigidly limited field. This 
is the meaning of the "thesis" in university work. 
A general command of allied subjects is valuable, 
even necessary; but personal power and citizenship 
in the commonwealth of those who know are the 
outcome of concentration and detailed mastery in 
a field magnified in detail by close observation. 

President Harper, in the discussion from which 
I have already quoted, points out that "one source 

157 



APPENDIX 



of waste in the educational machinery of colleges 
and universities lies in the dissipation and distrac- 
tion made possible and even rendered inevitable by 
the lack of care shown to secure concentration of 
work on the part of both student and instructor." 
He says also, in the same connection: "No student 
can profitably conduct more than three lines of 
study at the same time, even when these lines run 
close together" (pp. 91, 92). 

A more comprehensive indictment of many of our 
modern educational methods could not be framed. 
Personally, I am constrained to admit the justice 
of it. At any rate, experience leads me to believe 
that the intensive method in which the cultivation, 
at least during the earlier stages of mental life, is 
narrowed and deepened is most effective. 

One pertinent and ever suggestive illustration 
occurs to my mind. During five years of a country 
pastorate my intellectual mentor, to whom I owe 
more than words can tell, was a graduate of Trinity 
College, Cambridge. In many ways he was the 
most completely educated man I have ever known. 
In the course of many conversations I learned some- 
thing of the method of undergraduate training 
through which he had gone. In particular, I was 
amazed to discover that he had read very few 
classical books, far less, indeed, than any American 
undergraduate of my acquaintance. But with 
what care those books had been read! The candi- 
date for a degree was expected to know all that 
could be known concerning the books under review. 
He must know the history of the book, including 
the number, character, and standing of extant man- 
uscripts; he must know all the variant readings; 
he must choose one of the variants for himself and 
be able to defend his choice; he must be able 
to give a mechanically exact translation together 
with construction; he must also give a translation 

158 



APPENDIX 



marked by literary finish, and be able to turn the 
translation back into the original. Whether this 
method prevails in the English universities now I 
am unable to say, but the method could not fail 
to ground in the essentials of true scholarship any 
subject of it. 

The chief secret of intensive study is to make re- 
peated and persistent attacks upon the same sub- 
ject. To get at the heart of a Scripture passage or 
book it is necessary to come back to it again and 
again with a constantly augmented grip derived 
from previous encounters. The rock is drilled by 
successive nips at its hard surface, which yields to 
no attack except that which advances by degrees. 
The Bible yields its deeper secrets as does the rock, 
to the same manner of gradual and persistent attack. 
The method is essentially cumulative because its 
results appear in close-set, connected series. Each 
gain in the way of increased insight or understand- 
ing is the result of those previously attained and 
would have been impossible without them. The 
process of study is very like mining by hand; each 
stroke of the pick or shovel breaks loose a bit of rock 
which exposes a new surface for attack, which pre- 
viously was not only hidden but protected. We 
are occasionally amazed by some teacher's or 
writer's flash of unexpected insight. We should be 
inclined to attribute this achievement to a happy 
accident and be disposed to envy the man to whom 
such things happen. The truth of the matter, how- 
ever, lies deeper and is expressed in a sentence of 
Pasteur's: "In the realm of investigation, accidents 
happen only to the mind which is prepared." The 
only preparation for such experiences, which crown 
the true scholar's laborious life with moments of 
supreme delight, is in the patient and persistent 
drudgery which binds day to day in unbroken 
succession. 



159 



APPENDIX 



B. The Title Jehovah and the Term Holiness 

What does philological science tell us of the origin 
and primitive meaning of this highly important word? 
Its testimony is not so clear and conclusive as one 
might wish. For example, a prolonged and some- 
what acrimonious controversy has been conducted 
in scholarly circles as to whether the name Jahveh 
is to be found outside of the Old Testament and the 
use of the Hebrews. 

Professor Rogers ("Religion of Babylonia and 
Assyria," p. 89f; cf. the more cautious statement 
of Pinches, "The Old Testament in the Light of the 
Historical Records of Assyria and Babylonia," p. 
535) thus summarizes this controversy: "There 
can, therefore, be no escape from the conclusion 
that the divine name Jahveh is not a peculiar pos- 
session of the Hebrews. It covers a large extent 
of territory both geographically and ethnologically, 
and the rapid accumulation of cases in which it 
appears during so few years makes reasonably 
probable a still wider use of the name than has yet 
been actually proved" (p. 95). So far, so good. 
But notice what follows: "The name came to 
Israel from the outside. But into that vessel a 
long line of prophets, from Moses onward, poured 
such a flood of attributes as never a priest in all 
western Asia, from Babylonia to the sea, ever 
dreamed of in his highest moments of spiritual in- 
sight. In this name, and through Israel's history, 
God chose to reveal Himself to Israel and by Israel 
to the world. Therein lies the supreme and lone- 
some superiority of Israel over Babylonia" (ibid., 
p. 97). 

This statement which really means that the term 
Jehovah came to Israel as an "empty vessel," then 
by the prophets to be filled with new and unique 
meanings, brings Dr. Rogers into fundamental 



160 



APPENDIX 



disagreement with Professor Delitzsch, inasmuch 
as the latter implies that the rich meaning which he 
gives to the term Jehovah represents its signifi- 
cance to the Babylonians. He says, apropos of the 
Jahveh tablets: "Therefore Yahwe, the Existing, 
the Enduring One (we have reasons for saying that 
the name means this), the one devoid of all change, 
not like us men, who tomorrow are but a thing of 
yesterday, but one who, above the starry vault 
which shines with everlasting regularity, lives and 
works from generation to generation — this 'Yahwe' 
was the spiritual possession of those same nomad 
tribes out of which, after a thousand years, the 
children of Israel were to emerge" (quoted by 
Johns: "Babel and Bible," pp. 70-72; and Rogers: 
op. cit., pp. 91-92.) 

This description is a noble passage, but we cannot 
doubt but that the learned author has inadvertently 
robbed the Bible in order to crown Babel with the 
credit for the ideas. There is not the slightest 
ground that any "priest in all western Asia, from 
Babylonia to the sea, ever dreamed of" any such 
attributes as belonging to his Jahveh. The situation, 
then, is this: By the help of the ablest philologists 
we have discovered in Jahveh a more or less widely 
used primitive Semitic term which, up to the very 
threshold of the Bible, has only the vaguest con- 
nection with the general idea of Deity. 

Next we step within the circle of the Bible itself 
and seek to discover the meaning of this mysterious 
and wonderful name. Philology, with no great 
unanimity or decision, transliterates the name but 
does not translate and throws no clear light upon 
the question of its meaning. 

Professor A. B. Davidson says ("Theology of the 
Old Testament," p. 45; cf. art., God, "Hastings' 
Dictionary of the Bible," Vol. n, p. 199f.): "The 
real derivation and meaning of the name are wholly 

161 



APPENDIX 



unknown." He also says (ibid., p. 46): "In 
Pentateuch the word is brought into connection 
with the word to be. This, however, is not an ac- 
count of the actual origin of the name, but only a 
play at most referring to its significance, or perhaps 
more probably connecting a significance with it." 
Professor Davidson calls attention to the fact that 
the verb (in Exodus in, 14, see margin) ordinarily 
translated "I am," etc., is a future and should be 
"I will be," etc., and says (H. D. B., as above): 
"What He will be is left unexpressed. [Then he 
supplies the deficiency.] He will be with them 
helper, strengthener, deliverer." Where does Pro- 
fessor Davidson get this group of ideas with which 
to fill out the conception of Jahveh? It is clearly 
evident that he gets them from the context in this 
and other passages. Follow his train of thought a 
little farther. He affirms that up to the time of 
Hosea the play upon the verb to be is still in mind 
(Hosea i, 9) while by Isaiah's time it has passed out 
of consideration. Here "Jehovah expresses the 
idea of the one true God. It does not describe 
God on the side of His nature, but on that of His 
saving operations, His living activity among His 
people, and His influence upon them." He then 
says "The term 'I will be what I will be/ expresses 
the sameness of Jehovah, His constancy — His be- 
ing ever like Himself. It does not express what 
other attributes He had — these were largely sug- 
gested by the fact of His being God; it rather 
expresses what all His attributes make Him, the 
same yesterday and today and forever, the true in 
covenant relation, the unchanging; hence it is said, 
'I am Jehovah, and change not'" (Malachi in, 6). 
The study of the word Jehovah is practically con- 
fined to the Old Testament and may seem to have 
been especially favorable to the argument for that 
reason. For comparison let us take a word of a 

162 



APPENDIX 



totally different kind, chosen at once because of 
its extensive use in all parts of the Bible and be- 
cause of its fundamental importance in the develop- 
ment of biblical teaching, namely, the word holiness, 
with its cognates, holy, hallow (make holy), sanctify, 
sanctification, etc. We shall attempt to make this 
study as exhaustive as possible, within reasonable 
limits, in the hope that many important suggestions 
as to methods of study will emerge in the process. 
First of all, we shall interrogate the Hebrew and 
Greek lexicons, then we shall glance at the Bible 
dictionaries, and then, finally, make some investi- 
gations on our own account. Here is an exhaustive 
analysis of the material to be found in the great 
Hebrew lexicon of Brown, Driver and Briggs. The 
various articles concerning holiness in this work 
cover the following words transliterated and trans- 
lated thus: 

(a) Kodesh, holiness. 

(b) Kadsoh, holy or sacred. 

(c) Kadash, to be set apart, which in its va- 

rious forms includes, to show oneself majes- 
tic or consecrated, to set apart as sacred, 
to observe as holy, to honor as sacred, 
to consecrate by purification, to keep 
oneself apart from unclean things, etc. 

(d) Kadesh and Kideshab, temple prostitute, 
male and female. 

(e) Kadlsh, sanctuary (name of place). 

(f) Mlkdash, sacred place. 

Taking the discussion of (a) which establishes 
the analysis followed in all the articles, we find the 
following statements. We omit illustrative pas- 
sages except in certain instances, the reason for 
which will appear later. 

1. Apartness, sacredness, holiness of God: 

(a) Divine activity, practically equivalent to 
majesty. Jeremiah xxiii, 9. 

163 



APPENDIX 



(b) To attest His word as inviolable. Amos 
iv, 2; Psalms lxxxix, 36; Psalms cv, 42. 

(c) Of His name as sacred, inviolable, separate 

from all defilement. 

(d) His Holy Spirit. 

2. Places as set apart as sacred by God's presence: 

(a) Heavenly abode. 

(b) On earth. 

(c) Tabernacle and its courts. 

(d) Temple and its precincts. 

(e) Jerusalem and its hills. 

(f) Zion. 

(g) Holy Land. 

3. Things consecrated at sacred places: 

(a) Furniture of tabernacle. 

(b) Sacrifice of animals. 

(c) Any consecrated thing. 

(d) Anointing oil of priests. 

4. Persons sacred through connection with sacred 
places: 

(a) Priests. 

(b) Israel. 

5. Times consecrated to worship. 

6. Things and persons ceremonially cleansed 
and so separated as holy. 

In examining these articles one is struck, first of all, 
by the evident fact that the ethical meaning of the 
term, that which is its distinctive meaning to the 
ordinary Bible student, occupies a very inconspicu- 
ous and subordinate place. The division (b) under 

1 (Kodesh) and the corresponding division under 

2 Kadosh) refers to passages which in usage and 
context give us the ethical ideas usually associated 
with the words. We are also interested in discover- 
ing that the word holy is applied to Astarte and 
her devotees and to temple prostitutes in general 

164 



APPENDIX 



(see (d) above and "Jewish Encyclopedia," art. 
Holiness). 1 

We also notice that the term is associated with 
ceremonial as well as moral characteristics, with the 
furnishings of the sanctuary (an example in point) 
and the garments of the priests as well as the moral 
character of Jehovah and His worshipers. The 
fact of the matter is that, etymologically, the term 
holy means Deity and that which belongs to Deity. 
Every god as god is holy, and every person, place or 
thing belonging to Deity is derivatively, holy. 
Professor Davidson ("Hasting's Dictionary of the 
Bible," Vol. n, p. 204b) says: "Holiness is not 
primarily a moral quality, it is the expression of 
Godhead in the absolute sense." Skinner (ibid, 
p. 396f) says of the term holy used by heathen that 
"it is not intended to convey any information as to 
the character of the gods; it is an otiose epithet, the 
'holy gods' meaning nothing more than the gods." 
Zenos ("Standard Bible Dictionary," art. Holiness) 
says: "It is God's uniqueness. God is holy because 
He is God. His holiness is His Divinity. " Etymo- 
logically this is strictly correct and it delimits strictly 
the range of etymological science. Had we nothing 
but philology to help us we should be unable to 
recognize the difference between Jehovah and the 
Gods of the nations as conveyed in this term. We 
should be compelled to say that the Hebrews used 
the ordinary word to describe their Deity. What 
we found to be the truth concerning the word 
Jahveh itself we find also here. The derivation of 

iln this connection it should not be forgotten that the Greek 
word Hagios, which is the Septuagint and New Testament repre- 
sentative of Kadosh, means simply devoted or belonging to the 
gods; and interesting enough, by an extension of meaning quite 
natural in the days of paganism, it means also accursed or exe- 
crable. The word is the precise equivalent (so far as primitive 
meaning is concerned) even in its paradoxical extension of mean- 
ing to Kadosh. 



165 



APPENDIX 



the term holy is entirely uncertain (cf. Zenos and 
art. in "Jewish Encyclopedia," as above, for con- 
tradiction on this point), and, primarily, it expresses 
in a vague and general way the powers and preroga- 
tives of Deity. The word is another empty vessel 
for Scripture to fill with meaning. And wonderfully, 
indeed, is this done. Let the student of the English 
Bible begin with the Trisagion in Isaiah vi, 3 and 
from that as a center, beginning with Exodus xv, 11 
where the term is used to point out the preeminent 
greatness of Jehovah, let him follow this great group 
of words from passage to passage and see for him- 
self what is said of the holiness of Jehovah and the 
issues which it raises for His own worshipers and for 
the world at large. 

Dr. Davidson appears to be almost in despair in 
the attempt to balance theoretical philology and 
usage, for he says in the same article quoted above: 
"Isaiah expresses his conception [of God] in the 
term Kadosh, of which 'holy' is a very imperfect 
rendering." Zenos is expressing the same sense 
of futility in the mere linguistic study of this term 
where he says (as above, p. 349): "The etymology 
of the words employed cannot be pressed. The 
sense of the words is already fixed." The close 
student of the English Bible could make an article 
on holiness which, in practical value, would fall 
very little short of the learned articles mentioned 
if he would analyze the materials at his disposal 
with equal care and industry and present them with 
a like skill in arrangement and expression. 

To illustrate further the value of context and 
usage, let me quote two paragraphs from a master 
of Old Testament exegesis in which he discusses the 
Old Testament conception of the holiness of God. 
In commenting on Isaiah, Vol. i, p. 336, Principal 
G. A. Smith says: Isaiah "likens the holiness of 
God to a universal and constant fire. To Isaiah 

166 



APPENDIX 



life was so penetrated by the active justice of God, 
that he described it as bathed in fire, as blown 
through with fire. " In Vol. n, p. 137, of the same 
commentary he says: "The Jewish Scriptures insist 
throughout upon the sublimity of God, or, to use 
their own term, His holiness. He is the Most High, 
Creator, Lord — the Force and Wisdom that are 
behind nature and history. It is a sin to make any 
image of Him; it is an error to liken Him to man. 
I am God and not man, the Holy One (Hosea xi, 9)." 
In neither one of these passages does the writer rely 
wholly upon the lexicon for his interpretation. In 
the former passage, particularly, the context in 
Isaiah is drawn upon for the idea of holiness which 
is emphasized (see context of both quotations in the 
commentary for full exposition of the fact, and 
Vol. ii, p. 255f, for another illustration. Cf. Stalker: 
"Christology of Jesus," p. 83). 

C. Colossians i: 9-23 — A Study in Grammatical 
Analysis 

The first sentence of the section begins with verse 
9 and ends at the close of verse 17. The second 
runs from 18 to the end of 20. The third sentence 
extends from 21 to 23. The entire passage, therefore, 
of more than fifty lines is made up of three sentences, 
necessarily of the utmost complexity of structure. 

There is but one sure way to deal with such a 
passage and that is to get down into its undergirding 
in grammatical structure. This alone will give with 
any certainty the articulation of the thought. As 
a proof of the accuracy of this statement I should 
like to propose to the reader that, first, he spend 
an hour or two in the attempt, by general study, 
to get at the real thought of Paul in this closely 
knit passage; and then to follow as we proceed on 
the basis of the grammatical structure. Letting 

12 167 



APPENDIX 



the mind into the thought by way of the grammar 
we begin promptly to make discoveries. The 
Apostle begins by giving the contents of his con- 
stant prayer for the Colossians. This subject holds 
until the beginning of verse 12 when we reach the 
word "Father." This is followed (in the Greek) 
by a participle correctly represented in our version 
by "who" which introduces a description of God 
continuing to the expression "Son of his love" (13b) 
and controlling the entire structure thus far. This 
is followed, first, by "in whom" (v. 14) and then by 
"who" (v. 15), which introduces a description of 
Christ and controls the structure down to the end 
of verse 20 when the subject is completely changed. 

The whole passage, therefore, falls at once into 
three parts. An introduction which gives the con- 
tents of Paul's prayer, a central portion (the bulk 
of the passage) which is descriptive and theological, 
and the conclusion which is practical exhortation of 
very much the same import as the introduction. 

Coming back now to this central portion, we see 
that it consists of two parts, each introduced by a 
descriptive relative, one concerning God spoken of 
as Father; the other concerning Christ spoken of as 
Son. Notice — and pardon the iteration — that the 
descriptive relatives, who, in whom, who, control the 
entire structure. Every item in the whole passage 
stands related to these seemingly introductory but 
really mandatory words. This fact gives the theme 
of the passage which is " God revealed as Father and 
Son." This is a true theme, inasmuch as it covers 
the entire passage and in its articulation can be 
fitted to no other. 

Considering now the first division of this central 
passage, we note three specifications in the de- 
scription of God. 

(a) He made us fit to be sharers of the inheritance 
of the saints in light. 



168 



APPENDIX 



(b) He delivered us out of the power of darkness. 

(c) He transferred us into the kingdom of the 
Son of His love. 

Grammatically these are coordinate — they are 
specifications of action on the Father's part and con- 
stitute the mode of His self -revelation. 

In the thought itself, however, we may be justified 
in taking (a) as inclusive of (b) and (c) and taking 
(b) and (c) to be two sides of one divine action. 

The Father made us worthy to be sharers in the 
inheritance of the saints in light by delivering us 
out of the authority of darkness and transferring us 
into the kingdom of the Son of His love. The second 
section (v. 14a) is interwoven with the first by the 
use of "in whom," which makes Christ the sphere 
of the Father's redeeming activity — it is separated 
entirely by the following "who" (v. 15a), which 
confines the description to Christ alone. Of Christ 
it is said: 

A. He is the image of the invisible God. 

B. He is the first-born with reference to the 
whole creation. 

In justification of B, four considerations are 
adduced (introduced by "for," v. 16): 

(a) In Him were all things created, in the heavens, 
etc. (v. 16a). 

(b) All things have been created through Him 
and unto Him (v. 16b). 

(c) He is before all things (v. 17a). 

(d) In Him all things stand together (v. 17b). 
Looking more closely at (a)-(d) we notice that we 

have three specifications as to the Son's creative 
activity: 

1. In Him (in the sphere of His power), 

2. Through Him (as agent), 

3. Unto Him (as end), 

all things have been created. In addition we have 
two statements which are in the nature of summaries: 



169 



APPENDIX 



4. He is before all things (as creative cause). 

5. He is in all things (as immanent controlling 
energy). 

At this point comes the first full stop which closes 
the first division of the second section. We shall 
get at the transition in a moment. Notice, however, 
that this division begins with a statement coordi- 
nate with A and B. Therefore, 

C. He is the head of the body, the church, inas- 
much as ("who" in v. 18b). 

(a) He is the beginning, the first-born from the 
dead. 

(1) In order that among all He might be 
preeminent. 

(b) It was the good pleasure of the Father: 

(1) That in Him should all the fulness dwell. 

(2) In Him to reconcile all things to Him- 

self, 
(a') through the blood of His cross. 

Examining the structure here we notice that the 
"who" of verse 18 is interpretative rather than 
merely descriptive and therefore amounts to a rea- 
son for what precedes. Christ is head of the church 
by virtue of being the beginning, the first-born from 
the dead. This makes the relative "who" (v. 18b) 
practically equivalent to the "because" (v. 19a). 
The clause introduced by "in order that" gives the 
reason for what immediately precedes. By that 
clause the thought reascends to the level of the main 
thought C. He is head of the church by being the 
first-born from the dead that (by this process of 
death and resurrection) He might be preeminent. 
A second reason for His headship, and incidentally 
for the method by which it was attained, is intro- 
duced by "because" (v. 19a). He is head of the 
church because the Father willed to dwell in Him 
in fulness and to reconcile the world through Him. 

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APPENDIX 



It is seen that the entire vision consists of one main 
statement concerning Christ's headship of the 
church and the reasons for it. 

Let us turn again to the transition at the beginning 
of verse 18. It will be seen at once that the division 
relative to Christ (vs. 14-20) is in two parts, as is 
also the whole main division (vs. 12-20) of the entire 
section (vs. 9-23). The first part (vs. 14-17) refers 
to Christ's activity in the cosmos, while the second 
(vs. 18-20) refers to His place in history. Exclusive 
of the introduction and conclusion, one of which 
leads into the main section and the other leads out 
of it, we have this plan. 

God revealed as Father and Son. 
I. As Father. 
II. As Son. 

A. In the cosmos. 

B. In history. 

It is noticeable that beneath the seeming com- 
plexity of the passage there appears a symmetrical 
and logical structure, beautiful in the clearness of 
its outlines and in the harmony of its parts. Such 
a structure every normal product of the human mind, 
inspired or otherwise, must exhibit. Once again, 
let me say, that writing is reason addressing reason, 
interpretation is reason answering reason. 

It is our business to interpret not the passage, but 
the method of dealing with it; but I cannot refrain 
from pointing certain beauties which belong to the 
structure. 

Compare the expression "first-born with reference 
to the whole creation" (v. 15), and "first-born from 
the dead" (v. 18). Notice also how the "all things" 
of the first division (v. 16) corresponds to the "all 
things" of the second (v. 18). Consider also, in 
this same connection, how the historic act of redemp- 
tion through the cross is placed in relationship with 

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APPENDIX 



the cosmic act of creation and placed on a level 
with it. This is the summit of the passage, and, it 
may also be said, one of the highest summits of the 
entire New Testament. 

D. The Contextual Study of Matthew I-IV 

As an illustration of what may be searched out in 
the purely contextual study of a passage, the follow- 
ing simple outline of Matthew's Gospel, Chapters 
i to iv, is offered. 

I. The Genealogy — i, 1-18. Three groups of 14 

generations each: 

A. From Abraham to David. 

B. From David to the Exile. 

C. From the Exile to the Christ. This is 
the history of the Israelitish Kingdom in its three 
great phases of development. Not only the teach- 
ing of Jesus concerning the Kingdom but the entire 
New Testament becomes the immediate context 
of this strikingly and to many mysteriously con- 
structed genealogy. 

II. The Virgin, Birth— i, 18-25. This statement, 
in connection with the genealogy which precedes 
it and the story of the Wise Men and Herod which 
follows it (Note "Now" [Gr.fc] of i, 18 and n, 1), 
connects the birth itself both with its antedecents 
and consequents and inevitably suggests Romans i, 
3-4 and other passages like it. The Divine-Human 
Messiah is here descried and the entire discussion of 
His person forms the context. 

III. The Quotations— i, 23; n, 6, 15, 18, 23; in, 

3, 6, 15, 16. 
A. The arrangement of these brings out the 
salient points of the narrative: 

1. The Virgin Birth. 

2. The Birth at Bethlehem. 

3. The Descent into Egypt. 

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APPENDIX 



4. The Massacre of the Innocents. 

5. The Residence at Nazareth. 

6. The Temptation. 

7. The Galilean Ministry. 

B. The use of them carries one into the Old 
Testament and involves a study of each 
passage in its original setting and in the 
new setting provided by quotation. 

A most suggestive line of study could be carried 
out under these two heads : 

(a) The contemporary meaning of each 
of these seven prophecies. 

(b) Their future reference and their ap- 
plication to the life of Christ. 

IV. Historical Context of the Birth Narrative of 
Chapter i, Ch. n, 1-23. 
A. The History of Herod I, 40-4 B.C. 

1. The historical process which brought Herod 
to power. 

(a) Conquest and forcible conversion of 
Edomites by John Hyrcanus 129 B.C. 

(b) Internal Dissensions among Jews end- 
ing in advent of Antipater, founder of 
Herod family, an Edomite, B.C. 47. 

(c) Roman Conquest of Judea under Pom- 
pey B.C. 63. 

(d) Antipater II, Prime Minister b. c. 43. 

(e) Herod, Antipater's son, Governor of 
Galilee 41 B.C. 

(f) Herod, King of Judea by actual con- 
quest B.C. 37. 

This entire story should be read in Josephus be- 
ginning with the XlVth Book of the Antiquities. 
AH this history is the immediate context of Mat- 
thew's Second Chapter. — Notice how characteristic 
of Herod (see above pp. 152-f for outline of period) 
as Josephus depicts him, is the narrative of Matthew. 

173 



APPENDIX 



B. The Wise Men. 

1. The meaning of the Narrative. 

2. The question of a world-wide expectation 

of the Messiah. 

3. Who were the Wise Men and what led them 

to Jesus? 

V. John the Baptist — Ch. in. 

1. The Rite of Baptism in Ancient and Con- 

temporary History. 

2. The Old Testament Antecedents of John. 

3. Pharisees and Sadducees (parties developed 

in the preceding epochs). 

4. The Doctrine of the Holy Spirit. 

(a) In the Old Testament. 

(b) In the present passage and infancy 
narratives in general. 

(c) In the teaching of Jesus and the 
Apostles. 

5. The Baptism of Jesus. 

(a) The meaning of the act 

(1) in relationship to John's work as 
depicted in New Testament. 

(2) in relationship to the work of Jesus 
Himself. 

(b) The place of the Baptism in the career 
of Jesus: 

Its relation 

(1) to His self-consciousness as Son of 
God. 

(2) to His consciousness of a Mission to 
men. 

(3) to His life in the Spirit. 

VI. The Temptation. 

A. Its meaning in relationship 

1. to His personal life. 

2. to His work as Redeemer. 

Among other great passages the context of this 
174 



APPENDIX 



narrative includes the great and vital discussion of 
Hebrews, n, 9-18. 

B. Its Character 

1. as subjective or objective. This involves 

a study of the doctrine of temptation, 
and touches upon the nature and origin 
of evil. 

2. as involving the conception of Satan. 
What would an "exhaustive" study of this section 

really involve? 



E. An Illustrative Outline Study of the Book of 
The Acts 

The book of The Acts is a particularly fascinating 
subject for analytical study because it consists of 
three strands of narrative so skilfully interw oven that 
by following each one of the three in succession one 
reviews the entire contents of the book but each 
time from a new angle of vision. 

I. The Biographical Narrative. 

A. The original twelve (minus one) and "the 

brethren" 

1. At the Ascension (i, 6-12). 

2. From the Ascension until Pentecost — 

Peter at the front (i, 13-26). 

3. On the day of Pentecost and after — Peter 

at the front (n, 1-47). 

B. Peter and John (in, 1-31). 

C. Barnabas, convert of the original group 

(m, 32-37). 

D. Peter (Ananias and Sapphira), Gamaliel 

in the background (v, 1-32). 

E. The Seven — converts of the expanded group 

(vi, 1-viii, 1). Saul in the background. 
1. Stephen ("and Stephen" vi, 8) (vi, 8- 
VIII, 1). 

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APPENDIX 



2. Philip ("and Philip" vm, 5), Simon 
Sorcerer viii, 5-40, The Ethiopian. 
(Peter and John, 14-24). 

F. Saul of Tarsus (ix, 1-30). 

1. Conversion (ix, 1-9). 

2. Visit to Damascus (Ananias of Damascus) 

ix, 10-22. 

3. Visit to Jerusalem (Saul and "brethren" — 

Barnabas), ix, 23-29. 

4. Visit to Tarsus (ix, 30). 

G. Peter (ix, 32-xi, 18). 

1. Missionary Journey — Aeneas, Dorcas, 

Simon, the Tanner. 

2. Conversion of Cornelius (x, 1-8). 

(a) The Vision of Cornelius (x, 1-8). 

(b) The Vision of Peter (x, 9-16). 

(c) Their meeting (x, 17-48). 

3. Visit to Jerusalem and first mention of 

Gospel for Gentiles (xi, 1-18). 
H. Barnabas — visit to Antioch, connected with 
Stephen and the persecution (xi, 19-26). 

I. Agabus, Barnabas, Saul (here connected) 
(xi, 27-30). 

J. James (martyred) and Peter (xn, 1-24), 
Herod Agrippa I. 

K. Barnabas, Saul (called Paul xm, 9) (sep- 
arated for special service), John Mark 
(xra, 5-13). 
First Missionary Journey (xn, 25-xiv, 28). 

L. Paul, Barnabas, Peter, James (The Depu- 
tation and Council at Judas, Silas 
(Antioch) (xvi, 1-35) Jerusalem). 

M. Paul, Barnabas, John Mark (the separation 
of Paul and Barnabas) (xv, 36-39). 

N. Paul and Silas (Timothy xvi, 1) Luke (xvi, 
11), Lydia, the Maid, Phil. Jailer, Jason, 
Dionysius, Damaris, Aquila, Priscilla, 

176 



APPENDIX 



Justus, Crispus, Gallio — Second Journey 
(xv, 40-xviii, 21). 

0. Paul, Apollus, Tyrannus, Sceva, Erastus, 
Demetrius, the Silversmith, Timothy, 
Tychicus, Trophimus, Elders of Ephesus, 
Agabus, Mnason, James — Third Journey 
(xviii, 22-xxi, 26). 

P. Paul, Trophimus, the Roman Captain, 
Claudius Lysias; Felix; Ananias the 
High Priest; Tertullus; Drusilla; Porcius 
Festus; Agrippa II; Bernice; Csesar 
(xxi, 27-xxvi, 32), Arrest and Trial at 
Jerusalem. 

Q. Paul, Julius the Centurion, Aristarchus, 
Sailors, Soldiers, Publius, "Brethren of 
Rome" — Voyage, Shipwreck, and Stay 
in Rome (xxvii, 1-xxvin, 31). 

The student who will go through the book of The 
Acts following this simple outline will discover that 
the entire narrative of events may be studied and 
practically all the material organized in terms of 
biography. That is to say that the entire story may 
be told in terms of personality — characters, in- 
fluences, events. It is most interesting to trace the 
connections. For example, the one hundred and 
twenty disciples of the upper-room yield (for 
Luke's purpose of narration) two dominant personali- 
ties, Peter and John. The expanded group conse- 
quent upon the preaching at Pentecost yields for 
special mention Barnabas, whose life fills several 
notable pages of the history; and, the Seven, men 
"of good report, full of the Spirit and wisdom," 
of whom two, Stephen and Philip, are singled out 
for special mention. In connection with the former 
a most dramatic element is introduced in the person 
of Saul who is the central figure of the entire history. 
Once again, in the joint careers of Paul and Barnabas 

177 



APPENDIX 



two separate threads of the preceding history are 
united and the inter-action of Mark upon the two and 
the subsequent history is another intensely dramatic 
element. So we might go on through Luke's illumi- 
nated pages, with the mind set to grasp just one 
group of facts — the inter-action of men upon each 
other and the unfolding of the vital drama of human 
personality. We should not miss a single episode — 
but see the entire history in the light of men, their 
characters and actions. 

II. The Historical Narrative — The Founding and 
Expansion of the Church. 

A. The Periods. 

1. From Pentecost to the Death of Stephen — 

the period of the Jewish-Christian Church 
in Palestine, i, 12-vm, 1. 

2. From the Death of Stephen to the Council 

at Jerusalem a. d. 50 — the period of the 
Jewish-Gentile Church in Syria, vm, 
2-xv, 29. 

3. From the Council of Jerusalem to Paul's 

First Imprisonment at Rome — the period 
of the Imperial Church, xv, 30-xxvm, 
31. 

B. The Forward Movement. 

1. The Church at Jerusalem Waiting, i, 

12-26. 

2. The Church at Jerusalem Developing, n, 

1-viii, 1. Note vi-1. 

3. The Church Scattered (n, 41, 47; iv, 4, 

32-34) throughout Syria — preaching (vi, 
1-7); and making converts from Gaza 
(viii, 26) to Damascus (ix, 10) Tarsus 
(ix, 30), cf. ix, 31. Cyprus and Antioch 
(xi, 19). Note particularly statement 
19b. 

4. The Conversion of Cornelius — first Gentile 

convert — hitherto Church consisted of 



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APPENDIX 



Jews, Palestinian and Hellenistic — see 
vi, 1. Ch. x. Note 45-48, xi, 1, 18. 

5. Gentile Christians at Antioch (xi, 20-30). 

Note verses £0, 26b. 

6. The Missionary Journey of Paul and 

Barnabas — Gentile converts mentioned, 
xiii, 7, implied vs. 44. Crisis vs. 45-48, 
xiii, 1-xv, 26. 

7. The Council at Jerusalem — first authorita- 

tive statement as to standing of Gentiles. 
Note xv, 14. 

8. The Gospel on European soil — advent and 

development of the Imperial Church, 
xvi, 9-xxviii. This inaugurates the 
third and last period of the Church's 
expansion. 
The entire later development, including the com- 
position of the New Testament, written almost en- 
tirely in Greek, was conditioned upon the fact that 
the Gospel was taken to the Gentiles before Christian 
literature and institutions were formed. From the 
Macedonian call onward it is not necessary to carry 
the analysis by item, — it is simply a question of ap- 
plication in detail of an established principle. The 
Church is already of imperial dimensions. By 
following this analysis the entire narrative is re- 
viewed from the point of view of a new and growing 
institution among men. It becomes not a series of 
connected and inter-acting biographies, but a series 
of crises in events by which an organization reaches 
its maturity and realizes the fundamental ideas im- 
plied in its constitution and purpose. 
III. The Religious Narrative. 

Key to this i, 1 — The Gospel by Luke and The 
Acts, two volumes of one work — "The Deeds 
of Jesus"; Vol. i, "What He began to do and 
teach"; Vol. n; "What He continued to do 
and teach." 

179 



APPENDIX 



Subject; The Historical Manifestation of the Risen 
Christ. 
L Introduction — The Resurrection and Ascen- 
sion — The Spirit promised, I, 1-11. 
II. The Risen Christ Manifested. 

A. In the gift of the Spirit, i, 12 — n, 47. Note 

i, 33, 36, 47. 

B. In the Miracle of healing and its results, 

in, 1-iv, 31. Note in, 6, 26; iv, 13, 27-31. 

C. In the Growth of the Church, iv, 32-vi, 

7. Note iv, 33, v, 19, 31, 32. 

D. In the Witness and Martyrdom of Stephen, 

vi, 8-vn, 60. Note vi, 10, vn, 55-60. 

E. In the Progress of the Church in Missionary 

activity, Ch. vm. Note vs. 12, 17, 26, 29, 
39. 

F. In the Conversion of Saul, ix, 1-31. Note 

vs. 5, 10, 11, 17, 27, 31. 

G. In the Ministry of Peter, ix, 32-43. 
H. In the Expansion of the Church. 

1. Under Peter— x, 1-xn, 24. Notex, 14, 19, 

44, 48; xi, 17, 21; xn, 11. 

2. Under Paul and Barnabas — xm, 1-xiv, 

28. Note xm, 2, 30, 52; xiv, 3. 

3. In the Council at Jerusalem — xv, 1-35. 

Note vs. 8, 11, 26, 28. 

4. Under Paul and Silas — xv, 36 — xviii, 22. 

Note xvi, 6, 7, 9, 18. 

5. Under Paul — xvm, 23-xxi, 16. Note xix, 

4-6, 17; xx, 23, 24. 

6. In Paul's Witness at Jerusalem — xxi, 14, 

17-xxvi, 32. Note xxm, 11. 

7. In Paul's Voyage to Rome — xxvn, 1- 

xxviii, 15. Note xxvii, 23-25. 

8. In Paul's Ministry at Rome — xxvm, 

16-31. 
It will be plain to the student who will follow the 
passages noted in this analysis, — that Luke wrote 

180 



APPENDIX 



the entire narrative of Acts in the belief that the 
Risen Jesus was in control of the Church and its 
leaders and that the "Acts of the Apostles" were, 
in so far as they were true to this divine leadership, 
"Acts of the Risen Lord." Now, these three strands 
of narrative, biographical, historical and religious, 
are smoothly and consistently interwoven into one. 
We might combine the results of the threefold analysis 
thus; The Risen Christ, through men who were 
ordained, endowed and led by Him, established 
and expanded the Christian Church. And this, 
indeed, is the whole wonderful story. 



F. A Study of the Gospel of Mark on the Basis 
of the Sequences in its Construction. 

Into the making of any book two main elements 
enter, the materials and their arrangement, or, to 
put it in other words, subject matter and order. In 
order really to follow the author's thought we must 
not only master his materials but also his arrange- 
ment and ordering of them. The following study 
is based altogether upon the observance of the se- 
quence in which the units of narration are placed. 
In this Gospel the general, organic principle of 
arrangement is dramatic, involving cause and effect, 
contrast and movement. It is, therefore, a study 
in dramatic sequences. 

I. The Dramatic Setting — The Messiah Identi- 

fied, i, 1-13. 

A. The Fore-runner and his Message. 

B. Baptism and Temptation. 

1. Anointed. 

2. Acknowledged. 

3. Tested. 

II. The Work begun, i, 14-45. 
A. The Preaching of Jesus. 

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APPENDIX 



B. The Call of the Disciples. 

C. Teaching with Authority. 

D. Miracles of Healing. 

1. Demoniac. 

2. Peter's mother-in-law. 

3. Multitude of sick folk. 

4. Leper. 

E. Wide-spread Popularity. 

Notice here : 

(a) Contrast of activity with passivity in 
the preceding section. 

(b) All the elements in the life of Jesus: 
preaching, calling disciples, teaching 
with authority, effect upon people are 
presented in this one section. 

(c) The dramatic interlude of vs. 35-39 
in which we are given a glimpse of the 
popular stir occasioned by His work, over 
against His life of prayer (35) and His 
deep and earnest purpose (38, 39). 

(d) The climax, which introduces the next 
movement of vs. 45. 

III. The Beginnings of Conflict, n, 1-28. 

A. Popularity at High Tide. 

B. The Four Questions. 

1. As to the forgiving of sins, 6-11. 

2. As to fellowship with publicans and sinners, 

15-17. 

3. As to fasting, 18-22. 

4. As to Sabbath keeping, 23-24. 

Note: (a) The same work which produces popu- 
larity causes conflict. 

(b) The dramatic element involved in 
placing the call of Levi in connection 
with the criticism as to Christ's social 
policy which it indirectly occasioned. 

(c) The climatic points in vs. 12, 17, 22, 
and especially 28 where our Lord's 

182 



APPENDIX 



self-assertion reaches one of its high- 
est levels. 
IV. The Deepening of Conflict, in, 1-35. 

A. The Plot to discredit Him and its failure, 1-5. 

B. The Plot to destroy Him, vs. 6. 

C. The Increase of Power, 7-12. 

D. The Appointment of the Twelve, 13-19. 

E. The Charge of Demonism and its failure, 

19b-30. 

F. The Assault by Friends, 31-35. 

Note: (a) How every item here enumerated is 
placed in the truly dramatic rela- 
tionship to every other. The plot 
to discredit Him as a Sabbath breaker 
fails and is followed at once by the plot 
to kill, and this by a vast accession of 
hearers and new works of power. 
This in turn followed by the appoint- 
ment of the twelve and then the most 
malignant attack yet made upon Him 
in the charge of being in league with 
the power of evil. Then comes, as a 
most dramatic contrast, the well- 
meant but serious interference of those 
who should have been His most loyal 
supporters. All this against the back- 
ground of power, success and popularity, 
(b) Climatic points in vs. 11, 29, 30,33-35. 
V. The Sifting of the Multitude, iv, 1-34. 
Four Parables of the Kingdom. 

A. The Sower, vs. 3-20. 

B. The Lamp, 21-25. 

C. The Seed growing by itself, 26-29. 

D. The Mustard Seed, 30-32. 

Note : (a) Every one of these parables bears more 
or less directly upon the apparent con- 
fusion, the real distinction and ultimate 

13 183 



APPENDIX 



separation of true believers and those 
who are not. 

(b) The statements of Jesus implying that 
the parables were spoken for the purpose 
of testing, vs. 11, 34. 

(c) The parables correspond exactly to 
the situation created by immense 
crowds and noisy demonstrativeness, 
on the one hand; and, bitter and malig- 
nant hostility on the other. It is neces- 
sary to sift the multitude. Mark has 
seized the dramatic opportunity in the 
grouping of his material. 

VI. The Man of Power, iv, 35-v, 43. 
Four Miracles : 

A. The Calming of the Sea, iv, 35-41. 

B. The Gadarene Demoniac, v, 1-20. 

C. The Woman 111 Twelve years, 25-34. 

D. The Daughter of Jairus, 21-24, 35-43. 

Note: (a) Parables which are purposely obscure 
forms of teaching are contrasted with 
miracles which are conspicuous acts of 
personal power. The teacher who tests 
men by teachings which have to be 
studied in order to be understood, 
demonstrated His unique power in a 
series of acts which no man willing to 
be persuaded could possibly misunder- 
stand. Another form of testing, 
(b) The Miracles are chosen so as to exhibit 
the range of Christ's power: 

1. Over Nature. 

2. Over Spirit. 

3. Over Human body in disease. 

4. Over Death. 

This is a striking example of dramatic 
enrichment. 



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APPENDIX 



(c) The keen sense of values exhibited in 
cutting in two the narrative of Janus' 
daughter and interposing between the 
parts the story of the healing performed 
on the street with the dramatic inter- 
locking in vs. 25 and 35. 
VII. Rejected in Galilee, vi, 1-vn, 23. 

A. Astonished but offended, 1-6. 

B. Sending out of the Twelve, 7-13. 

C. Herod and John the Baptist, 14-29. 

D. Retirement into the Region around the Lake, 

30-vii, 23. 

1. Five thousand fed, 30-44. 

2. Wind stilled, 45-52. 

3. Healing of sick, 53-56. 

4. Criticism on part of deputation from Jerusa- 

lem, vii, 1-23. 

Note: (a) This section, centering in vi, 1-6, 
forms the culminating of the whole pre- 
ceding movement, so far as the public 
standing of Jesus is concerned. The 
self-manifestation of the Messiah in 
word and work resulted in His rejec- 
tion in Galilee. His disciples are left 
and many find Him but in retirement. 

(b) This retirement is signalized by a stu- 
pendous miracle which brings to a 
climax the movement for and against 
Him. Mark merely indicates the de- 
cisive character of the rejection in 
Galilee by his use of backgrounds, 
These are: 

(c) Herod's murder of John and the hostile 
deputation from Jerusalem, both of 
which indicate what is waiting for 
Jesus upon His return from retirement. 
Another dramatic contrast. 

185 



APPENDIX 



VIII. Beyond the Borders, vh, 24-vm, 26. 

A. The Syro-phoenicean Woman, vn, 24-30. 

B. The Journey to the East of the Lake, 31- 

viii, 10, and Feeding of the Four Thou- 
sand. 

C. Return and Leaven of Pharisees, viii, 

11-21. 

D. Healing of Blind Man, 22-26. 

Note: (a) The dramatic fitness of this section is 
due to the Syro-phoenicean woman and 
her faith in contrast with the unbelief 
of the Pharisees. The section centers 
in this incident coupled with the re- 
peated miracle of feeding and the re- 
newed controversy with the Pharisees. 
(b) The climax is in vs. 21, which goes back 
to the Miracle through the visit of the 
Pharisees and forward to the confession 
of Peter in the next section. The ques- 
tion of vs. 21 is a direct plea for faith 
on the part of the disciples. 

IX. The Great Confession at Csesarea Philippi, 
viii, 27-ix, 1. 

A. "Current Opinion" as to Christ, vs. 28. 

B. The Voice of Faith, vs. 29. 

C. The Embargo upon Speech, vs. 30. 

D. The First Vision of the Cross. 

1. The Divine Necessity of it, vs. 31-33 

(Peter's denial). 

2. The Meaning of it in human life, 35-36. 

3. The Triumph of it, 37-ix, 1. 

Note: (a) The contrasts. 

1. Current ideas and enlightened 
faith concerning Jesus. 

2. The two conceptions of the Mes- 
siah's Mission, Peter's and Jesus' 
own. 



186 



APPENDIX 



3. The Messiah's present and future 
status. 
(b) This incident is the central climax of 
the entire Gospel. The book could 
readily be divided into two sections 
with the division at viii, 31. The first 
main section of the Gospel comes under 
this question: Is Jesus the Messiah? 
The second comes under this even deeper 
and more critical question: What sort 
of a Messiah is He? The first question 
the disciples answered at Csesarea 
Philippi. The second they were unable 
to answer until Easter Morning or per- 
haps Pentecost. The words of viii, 30 
indicate how great the step was. 
X. The Unveiled Glory, ix, 2-50. 

A. The Inward Light, 2, 3. 

B. The Heavenly Visitants, vs. 4. 

C. The Voice of the Father, vs. 7. 

D. The Frailty of the Disciples. 

1. Their confusion of mind, 5-6. 

2. Law of silence, 9-13. 

3. Demoniac boy, 14-29. 

4. Call of ambition, 30-37. 

5. Need of broadening, 38-50. 

Here the dramatic contrasts are of increasing 
intensity. 

Note: (a) The deepening line of separation 
between Jesus and the disciples as 
His higher motive and loftier charac- 
ter are increasingly disclosed. 

(b) The movement from viii, 33 to ix,. 7 
and the contrast between ix, 31 and 
34. 

(c) The climax of the entire section is in 
verse 49, 50 (ix) in which the sig- 
nificance of all the disciples have been 

187 



APPENDIX 



through is interpreted as "salting 
with fire," and the further movement 
is foreshadowed. 
XI. The Testing of the Master, x, 1-45. 

A. The Question as to Marriage, 2-12. 

B. The Blessing of the Children, 13-16. 

C. The Rich Young Ruler, 17-31. 

D. The Menace of Jerusalem, 32-34. 

E. The Ambition of the Disciples, 35-45. 

Note: (a) That everything in this section has the 
testing quality as to the attitude of 
Jesus toward certain fixed questions 
and problems of life. Its dramatic 
fitness in view of the declaration on the 
law of testing, ix, 49, is obvious. 
(b) The section culminates in a most nota- 
ble climax in x, 45, which is one of the 
most comprehensive self-assertions our 
Lord ever spoke. 
XII. The Testing of Israel, xi, 1-xn, 44. 

A. The Triumphal Entry, xi, 1-11. 

B. The Barren Fig-tree, 12-14, 20-25. 

C. The Cleansing of the Temple, 15-19. 

D. The Baptism of John, 27-33. 

E. Parable of the Rented Vineyard, xn, 1-12. 

F. The Question of the Tribute Money, 13-17. 

G. The Question of the Resurrection, 18-27. 
H. The Question of the First Commandment, 

28-34. 
I. The Question of David's Son, 35-37. 
J. Denunciation of Scribes, 38-40. 
K. The Widow's Mite, 41-44. 

Note: (a) All the items in this list, except F, G,H, 
which resulted so strikingly in favor of 
Jesus, involve a positive attack on the 
position of His opponents by our Lord 
who here takes the aggressive. In the 

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APPENDIX 



preceding section He was under fire; 
here He makes war in the enemy's 
country. 

(b) The interposed incident of x, 46-52 
is important. It is one beautiful, char- 
acteristic act of power, such as Jesus 
loved to perform, a peaceful interlude 
between the swiftly moving acts of the 
great tragedy. 

(c) The central significance of xn is ex- 
pressed in xi, 33. 

XIII. The Master and the Great Future, xm, 1-37. 

A. Destruction of City and Temple, 1-25. 

B. Coming of the Son oOIan, 26-37. 

Note: (a) This prediction is in fulfilment of the 
preceding section. The judgment in 
word is to be followed by judgment in 
ultimate events. The drama of the 
Gospel is the drama of all time. 
(b) Central ideas of the section in vs. 13, 
26, 37. 

XIV. The Drinking of the Cup, xiv, 1-xv, 47. 

A. The Death foreshadowed at Bethany, 1-9. 

B. The Betrayal bargained for, 10, 11. 

C. The Passover prepared for, 12-16. 

D. The Betrayer indicated, 17-21. 

E. The Sacrament of Sacrifice, 22-26. 

F. The Denial predicted, 27-30. . 

G. The Disciples boast, vs. 31. 

H. The Cup tasted beforehand, 32-42. 
I. The Cup accepted, 43-xv, 47. 

1. Arrest. 

2. Peter's hasty act. 

3. The calmness of Jesus. 

4. The disciples forsake Him. 

5. Flight of the unknown. 

6. Trial before Sanhedrin. 

7. Peter's denial. 



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APPENDIX 



8. Jesus before Pilate. 

9. On the Via Dolorosa. 

10. The Crucifixion, Death, Burial. 
This section is in most striking contrast with that 
which precedes it. The prediction of a future coming 
in glory and power is followed at once by a humble 
surrender to a tragic fate. Internally, the dramatic 
quality of the section is seen in the constant contrast 
between the calmness, patience and inflexible reso- 
lution of Jesus and the rashness, vacillation and weak- 
ness of the disciples. Note those passages in which 
the unchanging purpose of Jesus to submit is ex- 
pressed. 
XV. The Final Triumph, xvi, 1-20 (9-20). 

A. The Resurrection, 1-8. 

B. The Forty Days and Ascension, 9-20. 
Taking the longer ending, for purposes of dis- 
cussion, we have in this section the glorious denou- 
ment of the entire movement. The faith of the 
disciples is justified and the unbelief and enmity of 
Christ's foes are condemned by the event. The Son 
of God, whose Gospel has been written, stands dis- 
closed. 

Concluding Word 

It may well be objected that in this exposition 
the dramatic element has been over-emphasized. 
Granted. I promised at the outset to emphasize 
nothing else. This analysis is proposed, among other 
reasons, as a study in concentration upon a single 
item of structure. For this, no apology ought to be 
needed. It may also be objected that the dramatic 
element lies deep in the facts and that Mark did not 
consciously produce the work of art we have studied. 
Granted again. I am interested in what is there 
not how it came there. Unconscious art is art 
none the less. Mark told a dramatic story dramati- 
cally, whether he knew it or not. 

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APPENDIX 



G. Outlines of Job and Philippians — Types of 
Book Analysis 

By way of contrast and repeated illustration let 
us turn to the book of Job. Nine out of ten people, 
if questioned as to the theme of the book of Job, 
would probably answer: "The mystery of unde- 
served suffering," or "Why does the good man 
suffer?" Professor Moulton states it as the "mys- 
tery of human suffering" which is discussed in suc- 
cessive cycles of "dramatic dialogue" in which the 
following solutions of the so-called problem are set 
forth. 

(1) Introduction. Suffering presented as Heav- 
en's test of goodness. 

(2) The very righteousness of God is involved in 
the doctrine that all suffering is a judgment 
upon sin (Eliphaz and Bildad). 

(3) Suffering is one of the voices by which God 
warns and restores mankind (Elihu). 

(4) That the whole universe is an unfathomable 
mystery, in which evil is no more mysterious 
than the good and the great. 

(5) Epilogue: That the strong faith of Job, which 
could even reproach God as a friend reproaches 
a friend, was more acceptable to Him than 
the servile adoration which sought to twist 
the truth to magnify Him. 

Ordinarily, I find it convenient to travel in com- 
pany with Professor Moulton, but here I must 
register an emphatic dissent. What authority is 
there for saying that the theme of the book is the 
"mystery of human suffering"? The book itself 
does not say it nor anything like it. Moreover, as 
we shall see, it says something quite different. 

Meanwhile there are two evident weaknesses in 
Professor Moulton's own scheme. His alleged first 

191 



APPENDIX 



solution is suggested in the introduction to the book. 
But the introduction is not the natural place to 
look for a "solution" — it is the place for a presenta- 
tion of the problem. And what becomes of the 
final solution in the outcome? Is a solution, sug- 
gested by a council in heaven, held at the begin- 
ning of the poem, cancelled by a theophany at the 
close? Is heaven here ranged against heaven? 
Solutions two and three are decisively rejected in the 
message spoken from the whirlwind, but there is no 
hint of such an attitude toward solution one. Solu- 
tion five, to take it out of its order for immediate 
disposal, is no solution at all — it vindicates the human 
right to reject any and all solutions as being attempts 
to solve the unsolvable. 

And how unconvincing is solution four as a sup- 
posedly divine and final answer to those who have 
darkened counsel without knowledge. To set the 
mystery of suffering in a framework of universal 
mystery and implicitly to deny a solution for any 
part of it would be quite worthy of a fourth coun- 
selor like the other three, but not of God. To give 
a suffering man a panoramic resume of the cosmos 
and to thunder him down with the things he cannot 
know, in place of sympathy and a revelation of truth, 
would be a disastrous finale in a poem considered 
worthy of a place in the Book of God. 

The simple truth of the matter is that neither the 
first scene nor the last of the book fits the theme 
which is so generally given to it. I cannot help 
feeling that in this instance Professor Moulton has 
begun his study with an unconscious prepossession 
which has blinded him to the real message of the 
book itself. Let us look at a few facts. 

1. The scene in heaven is introduced for the pur- 
pose of letting us know the standing of Job before 
God. Whether we consider this scene as historical 
or merely literary, it is decisive for the authors' 

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APPENDIX 



desire to emphasize the fact that Heaven's attitude 
toward Job was one of approbation. 

2. Satan is introduced for the purpose of showing 
that God's estimate of Job was open to dispute on 
the ground that the patriarch had not been decisively 
tested. 

3. Job's misfortunes were the direct issue of this 
reflection upon his integrity which made a test 
imperative. 

4. The issue raised in Job's mind by his misfor- 
tunes was not "the problem of suffering" but solely 
the personal attitude of God toward himself. This 
makes it clear that the issue raised by the book 
anent Job was his personal attitude toward God. 

It is to be noted carefully that Job's misfortunes 
did not in the least degree shake his faith in the 
goodness of God. Satan's attempts to discredit 
God's servant fail (see i, 22; n, 10) and he disap- 
pears from the scene. 

The plan of the entire action in its progress and in 
its outcome is given in verses 9 and 4 of the first and 
second chapters respectively, together with their 
dramatic counterparts, verse 22 of chapter i and 
verse 10 of chapter n. According to the book itself, 
therefore, the theme is God's servant under trial, 
or, as a secondary title, Professor Genung's "Is 
there disinterested service of God?" This theme 
covers the book and explains every item of its con- 
struction while there are three irreducible elements 
in the book as ordinarily interpreted. First, Job's 
wild ravings apparently directed against God, in 
contrast with his submissiveness under the repeated 
strokes of misfortune. Second, the apparent irrele- 
vancy of God's message from the whirlwind. Third, 
Job's immediate self-humiliation and submission. 

These are impossible of explanation unless we 
follow the book itself. Job's apparent chidings of 
God are based upon the logic of his friends' arguments. 

193 



APPENDIX 



They do not represent his views of God and God's 
ways, but they represent his idea of what Eliphaz 
and Bildad make of God by their arguments. In 
order fully to realize this fact it is only necessary to 
recall that all that Job asks is that God shall speak 
for Himself and enter directly into judgment with 
His servant. 

God's message out of the whirlwind has no bearing 
upon the problem of suffering, but it meets Job's 
requirement that God Himself shall speak. God 
does speak, vindicates Job, and condemns the argu- 
ments put forth in his behalf by the friends. Job 
thereupon condemns himself, and that for two 
dramatic reasons. It is the withdrawal of the 
charges apparently made against God and it repre- 
sents the resumption of normal relationship with God 
of a man who is conscious of imperfection in the 
sight of the All-wise and All-good. It is quite 
evident that the literary center of the book of Job 
and the key to its meaning are in chapter i, verse 9. 
One could not go astray in its interpretation by 
following carefully the clue that is provided by the 
book itself. Progressively relating each portion 
of the book to this central principle reconstructs it 
according to the mind of the author and makes full 
disclosure of its meaning. 1 

1 Since the above lines were written I have had the privilege 
of reading Professor Cobern's brilliant and persuasive paper on 
"A New Interpretation of the Book of Job" (Methodist Review, 
May, 191*1). The acceptance of Professor Cobern's thesis, that 
the book of Job teaches immortality, which seems, in view of the 
substantial considerations urged in its support, likely to prevail, 
necessitates no essential change in what has here been said. Pro- 
fessor Cobern asserts that the background of the discussion is 
"the rather obsolete doctrine of the old theology that all sin and 
righteousness receive their full and appropriate reward in this 
life" (see article cited, p. 432). His specific thesis is that the 
solution given in the book of the problem presented by the experi- 
ence of Job is the extension of the sphere of divine providence in 
dealing with men to life beyond death. This leaves unchanged 

194 



APPENDIX 



The Epistle to the Philippians is looked upon as 
one of the most difficult to analyze of all the Pauline 
letters. Principal Rainy ("Expositor's Bible: Phil- 
ippians." Prefatory Note) formed and abandoned 
the plan to give at the close of his exposition an 
outline of the epistle on the ground that it was "more 
suitable to the nature of an exposition to keep as 
close as possible to the Apostolic turns of thought." 
Professor Moorehead says of the epistle: "It does 
not readily lend itself to analysis" ("Outline Studies 
in New Testament, Philippians to Hebrews," p. 
15) . Bishop Lightf oot says : " Of plan and arrange- 
ment there is even less than in St. Paul's letters 
generally. The origin and motive of the epistles 
are hardly consistent with any systematic treatment" 
(Lightf oot: "Epistle to the Philippians," p. 68). 

It would seem, therefore, that this epistle would 
put any method which might be applied to it to a 
very severe test. We can but try. Upon even a 
cursory examination one fact stands out with great 
distinctness and emphasis. Practically every para- 

the problem itself which, since the book is a drama and not an 
essay, lies in the region of life rather than abstract thought, and 
concerns the genuineness and disinterestedness of Job's piety. 
On any interpretation of the book, Professor Cobern's included, the 
issue is whether Job's devotion to God could maintain itself in 
the absence of the material rewards connected in current thinking 
with righteousness and faith. The question of immortality does 
not modify this issue one iota. A man who demands material 
rewards in the way of prosperity, health and power could never be 
satisfied with a promise of immortality. Hence the message from 
the whirlwind offers no solution of the problem as ordinarily pre- 
sented. But if, as here maintained, Job seeks to deal directly 
with God and asks naught but established and permanent harmony 
with God — in other words, vindication and fellowship as his por- 
tion from God — the dramatic suddenness with which his stormy 
heart is calmed is more readily explainable according to Professor 
Cobern's interpretation than by any other now in the field. This 
discussion has been entered upon merely to show that following a 
clue to analysis interior to the book itself has enabled us to appro- 
priate a novel and revolutionary interpretation practically without 
jar of displacement. 

195 



APPENDIX 



graph in the epistle contains an explicit reference 
to the person of Christ. No less than thirty-seven 
times in the brief compass of a letter divided in our 
versions in four chapters and 104 verses, our Lord 
is referred to by name. Moreover, it appears that 
the name of Christ is in nearly every instance con- 
nected with a preposition, by, in, through, of, to, for, 
or with} This fact, of course, signifies that Christ 
is conceived of as placed at the center of a network 
of relationships which radiate to and from Him from 
and to the various factors in experience which are 
dealt with in the discussion. 

In reviewing these expressions our attention is 
caught by verse 21: "For me to live is Christ." 
Changing this informal expression into didactic 
form for the sake of the idea, it becomes: "For me 
the meaning of life is in Christ." "For me" is a 
mark of the epistolary form — it is the constructive 
center of a letter expressing conviction. It is a 
personal and individual utterance of assurance for 
which the letter is the natural form. But it is also 
the statement of a principle at once so radical and 
so far-reaching that it must touch at once center and 
circumference of any interpretation of life of which 
it forms a part. For the Christian the meaning 
of life is in Christ. This is the epistle. It conveys 
the essence of its meaning and accounts for its pecu- 
liar construction. On the surface it is complex as 
life is complex; at bottom it is simple as life in Christ, 
the one all-controlling Master, is simple. Life in 
the concrete, in the form of problems, conflicting 
interests, warring impulses, as well as of opportuni- 
ties, privileges, and duties, is dealt with on the basis 

1 e. g. t Ch I, vs. 2, from; vs. 5, of; vs. 8, of; vs. 10, of; vs. 11, 
through; vs. 13, in; vs. 14, in; vs. 19, of; vs. 23, with; vs. 26, in; 
27, of; 29, of; Ch n, 1, in; 5, in; 10, of (in name of); 16, of; 19, in; 
21, of; 24, in; 29, in; 30, of; Ch in, 1, in; 3, in; 7, for; 8, of; 9, in 
(him); 9, in; 12, by; 14, in; 18, of; 20, for; Ch iv, 1, in; 2, in; 4, in; 
7, in; 10, in; 19, in; 21, in; 23, in. 

196 



APPENDIX 



of one single truth, that the meaning of life is to be 
found in Christ. To illustrate, take the very first 
statement of conviction in the epistle; "Being con- 
fident of this very thing that he who began a good 
work in you will perfect it in the day of Jesus Christ. " 
Here the meaning of life as a providential disciplining 
in grace is found in Jesus Christ whose manifestation 
in power is to crown and complete the process of 
growth already begun. 

Once more we take the great passage of the second 
chapter (n, 5-11). Here the meaning of life as a 
problem in self -discipline in mutual love and unsel- 
fish service is found in Christ whose divine self- 
emptying furnishes a motive powerful enough to 
curb the selfish impulses of those who acknowledge 
His Lordship. So it runs with every paragraph in 
the book. The underlying unity of the epistle is 
thus expressed by Principal Rainy (op. cit. 366): 
"In reference to all, and all alike, he speaks from the 
same central position, and with the same fulness 
of resource." 

H. An Outline Course of Bible Study in Twenty- 
six Lessons 

Introductory Note 

These studies furnish no materials and are de- 
signed for mature students. They should not be 
attempted until the books indicated have been care- 
fully read and general impressions registered. The 
value of such condensed suggestions can be dis- 
covered only by students who have advanced a 
certain degree in the mastery of the biblical material. 
The historical outline suggested will be found to 
correspond quite closely to the diagrams in Dr. W. 
W. White's "Studies in Old Testament Characters" 
which may be consulted with profit. Students are 

197 



APPENDIX 



urged not to consult Commentaries or Handbooks until 
they have failed after earnest search to obtain answers to 
questions from the Bible itself. 

PART I 

Lessons I to XIII 
Historical and Outline Book Studies. 

PART II 

Lessons XIV to XXVI 

The Prophets of Israel and the Apostles of Chris- 
tianity with special reference to the life and teachings 
of Jesus Christ. 



Part I 

The general plan of this part of the lessons is, 
by a progressive infilling of a general historical 
outline with dates, events, characters, and books, 
to analyze and bring into organic relationship the 
mass of biblical material. 

Lesson I 

The Ethnic Backgrounds of Israel from 2000 
B.C. to 100 A.D. 
General Topics: 

1. The succession of great Empires and their 

rulers. 

2. The biblical periods. 

3. The biblical characters. 

Special Topic: The Nations and the Bible. 

Directions for study: Draw a horizontal line in 
your notebook to represent the entire period covered. 
Divide it in accordance with the main divisions of the 
history and in their proper places indicate the nations 
mentioned in the Bible with as many leading men as 
you can name. 

198 



APPENDIX 



Lesson II 
Analysis of Biblical Periods with special reference 
to turning points and great characters. 
General Topics: 

1. Review of preceding lesson. 

2. Crises of the history. 

3. Men and occasions. 

Special Topic: Moses and Paul, a comparison 
and contrast. 

Directions for study: Let the diagram be filled in 
with the crises of the history, connecting with each the 
man used of God to carry out His purpose. 

Lesson III 
The Relation of the Books: Genesis to II Kings 
(omitting Ezra, Nehemiah, Ruth and Esther) to the 
history. 
General Topics: 

1. The development of the Jewish Kingdom. 

2. The failure of the Kingdom. 

3. The rise of the Messianic Hope. 

Special Topic : The relation of God to the King- 
dom. 

Directions for study: Arrange on the diagram the 
historical material in these books relating any minor 
crises that seem to arise to the greater ones already 
noted. 

Lesson IV 

The Relation of the Books : I Chronicles, II Chroni- 
cles, Ezra, Esther, Ruth, Nehemiah, to the History. 
General Topics: 

1. The importance of the Davidic line of Kings. 

2. The promise to David. 

3. The degenerate Kings. 

Special Topic: The Tabernacle, The Temple, The 
Second Temple. 

14 199 



APPENDIX 



Directions for study: Fill in the outline with 
greater detail and note especially the crises in the life 
of David. 

Lesson V 

The Prophetic Books in their Historical Setting. 
General Topics: 

1. Written prophecy. 

2. The order of the Books. 

3. The historic occasion of the chief prophecies. 
Special Topic: The Message of Amos. 
Directions for study: Make an analysis of the 

historical elements in the Books of the Prophets and 
by arranging it on your diagram see how much of a 
history you could gain from the prophets alone. 

Lesson VI 
The Psalter. 
General Topics: 

1. Early poems and songs of Israel. 

2. Davidic Psalms. 

3. Later Psalms. 

Special Topic: Psalms xix and xxxn. 

Directions for study : Make a study of the Psalms 
for historical material and arrange it so as to see how 
much of a history could be constructed from the 
Psalms alone. 

Lesson VII 

An outline study of the Synoptic Gospels. 

General Topics: 

1. The historical setting of the Gospel narrative. 

2. Theme, view-point and leading characteristic 

of each Gospel. 

3. The ministry of Jesus according to the Synop- 

tic account. 
Special Topic: The Training of the Twelve. 
Directions for study: Note how the training of 

200 



APPENDIX 



the Twelve falls into two periods, corresponding to 
two periods in the life of Jesus, which may be desig- 
nated as "elementary lessons" and "advanced 
lessons." 

Lesson VIII 
An outline study of the Gospel of John. 
General Topics: 

1. Relation of John to Synoptic story. 

2. The theme and view-point. 

3. Analysis by chapters or in accordance with 

the historical movement. 
Special Topic: The meaning of the Prologue 
(see above pp. 109-f). 

Directions for study: Find the favorite words of 
John's Gospel. 

Lesson IX 

An outline study of Paul's Epistles. 
General Topics: 

1. The Epistles in Paul's life. 

2. The order of the Epistles. 

3. The occasion and purpose of each. 
Special Topic: The Epistle to the Romans. 
Directions for study : Fit the letters into the events 

of the Apostolic Age. 

Lesson X 

An outline study of the General and Pastoral 
Epistles. 
General Topics: 

1. Communication in the Early Church. 

2. The formation of church organization. 

3. The historical outlook of these Epistles. 
Special Topic: The Epistle to Philemon. 
Directions for study: Analyze one of the general 

letters to get its atmosphere. 

201 



APPENDIX 



Lesson XI 
An outline study of the Epistle to the Hebrews. 
General Topics: 

1. The Old Covenant and the New. 

2. The parallels of the two Covenants. 

3. The contrasts of the two Covenants. 
Special Topic: The superiority of Jesus to Moses. 
Directions for study: Analyze carefully the first 

chapter of the Epistle. 

Lesson XII 
An outline of the Book of the Revelation. 
General Topics: 

1. Apocalyptic in Hebrew literature. 

2. Old Testament materials in Revelation. 

3. Fundamental idea and purpose of the Book. 
Special Topic : The Letters to the Seven Churches. 

Lesson XIII 

General review with special topics and questions 
suggested in the course of the preceding studies. 

Part II 

Lesson XIV 
Prophets and Prophecy in General. 
General Topics: 

1. The Prophetic succession. 

2. The nature of the Prophetic office. 

3. Connection between Prophets and Apostles. 
Special Topic : The meaning and use of the word 

Prophet. 

Directions for study: In the concordance look up 
the words "prophet," "prophecy," etc. Note their 
prevalence in early part of history. 

202 



APPENDIX 



Lesson XV 
Prophets before Amos. 
General Topics: 

1. The rise of the Prophetic order. 

2. The first Prophet. 

3. The place of the prophets in the Kingdom. 
Special Topic: The call and consecration of the 

Prophet. 

Directions for study : Make a list of the men who 
are in some way designated as prophets in the early 
ages. 

Lesson XVI 

The Prophetic element in the Tabernacle service 
and sacrifices. 
General Topics: 

1. The priestly element in the Pentateuch. 

2. The main meaning of Sacrifice. 

3. The typology of Sacrifice. 

Special Topic: The covenants of the Old Testa- 
ment. 

Directions for study : With the concordance study 
the uses of the word ''covenant" in the Bible as a 
whole. 

Lesson XVII 

Prophets and Prophecy in the period of the United 
Kingdom. 
General Topics: 

1. The Prophetic career of Samuel. 

2. The sons of the Prophets. 

3. The Prophets and the Kings. 
Special Topic: The Prophetic consciousness. 
Directions for Study: Make yourself familiar 

with the life of Samuel, noting in some detail his 
public service to Israel. 

Lesson XVIII 
Prophets and Prophecy in the Divided Kingdoms. 
203 



APPENDIX 



General Topics: 

1. The historic situation. 

2. The Prophetic task. 

3. The power of heathenism. 

Special Topic : Revelation and Inspiration. 

Directions for study : Return here to the diagram 
and place the succession of Kings in the two king- 
doms, noting their moral characters. 

Lesson XIX 
Prophecy in the Assyrian Period. 
General Topics: 

1. The two crises of Assyria's history and their 

bearing upon prophecy. 

2. The messages of the Prophets. 

3. History and Prophecy. 
Special Topic: The Book of Jonah. 
Directions for study : Analyze the Book of Nahum. 

Lesson XX 
The Prophecy of Hosea. 
General Topics: 

1. The Prophet's painful experience. 

2. God's dealing with Israel. 

3. The sin against love. 

Special Topic: Prophetic Symbolism. 
Directions for study: Collect as many instances 
as you can of Prophetic Symbols. 

Lesson XXI 
A study of Isaiah, Chapters i to xn. 
General Topics: 

1. The career of Isaiah. 

2. The message of Isaiah. 

3. Isaiah and Ahaz. 

Special Topic: The Immanuel Prophecies. 
Directions for study: Try to gather from the above 
passages a conception of Isaiah's personality. 

204 



APPENDIX 



Lesson XXII 
The Life of Christ with special reference to 
Prophecy. 
General Topics: 

1. The Messianic Hope in the New Testament. 

2. The promise and its fulfilment. 

3. The Kingdom of God. 

Special Topic: Christ's Sonship to David. 

Directions for study: Review the Messianic pas- 
sages with the special idea in mind of their formative 
influence on the minds of the Hebrew people. 

Lesson XXIII 
The Miracles of Christ. 
General Topics: 

1. Analysis of the miracles with special reference 

to the setting. 

2. The evidential value of the miracles. 

3. Relation of miracles and teaching. 
Special Topic: Miracles and Law. 
Directions for study: Make a list of the miracles 

and place them in the outline of Christ's life. 

Lesson XXIV 
The Teaching of Christ. 
General Topics: 

1. Christ's method as a teacher. 

2. Leading characteristics of the teaching. 

3. The mind of Christ. 

Special Topic: The Parables of Christ. 

Directions for study: Make a list of the parables 
and relate them to the history as in the case of the 
miracles. 

Lesson XXV 

The Teaching of Christ and the Teaching of the 
Apostles. 

205 



APPENDIX 



General Topics: 

1 . The teaching of Christ and the Old Testament. 

2. Points of connection between the teaching 

of Christ and that of the Apostles. 

3. Unity of the New Testament. 
Special Topic: The Atonement. 

Directions for study : Compare the Sermon on the 
Mount and the Epistle of James. 

Lesson XXVI 
The Nature and Authority of the Bible. 
General Topics: 

1. The leading characteristics of the Bible. 

2. The Bible and the "Word of God." 

3. The unity of the Bible. 

Special Topic: The Doctrine of Creation. 

Directions for study: Review notes taken for 
suggestions on the topic of this lesson and prepare 
questions. 

I, The Use of Books in Bible Study 

The following brief bibliography has been pre- 
pared to enforce and emphasize the contention so 
often urged in the text, that the student should pro- 
ceed with the fixed intention of dealing with the Bible 
at first hand and for himself. The same principle 
should be followed in the choice and use of books 
other than the Bible. We should get as close as 
possible to the original sources and choose for study 
use the most authoritative, solid and comprehensive 
book or books in each department. The mastery of 
the books suggested below will be discovered to be a 
scholarly task of no mean distinction and the right 
use of them will not detract from one's power to 
do original work. The list is made up for those 
who are willing to do hard work and ask nothing 

206 



APPENDIX 



more from books than stimulus, guidance and aid in 
the use of their own powers. 

A. Bible Texts. (1) "The Cross-Reference Bi- 
ble" (T. Nelson & Sons, N. Y.). This edition is 
recommended as one of the best general instruments 
for the Bible student not so much for its critical and 
introductory work which is very uneven in quality 
but for the following features; (a) a clear, pleasant, 
accurate text of the American standard version; 
(b) a list of textual variations; (c) a condensed tabu- 
lation of interpretive opinion on important passages; 

(d) a careful and practical system of cross-references; 

(e) a topical analysis which is at once logical and 
easily used. 

(2) For the authorized version "Wilmore's Ana- 
lytical Reference^ Bible" (H. F. Giere, N. Y., 1907), 
containing the time-honored Hitchcock's Analysis, 
and Cruden's Concordance may be used with profit. 

(3) For the careful literary study of the text, 
Moulton's "Modern Readers' Bible" (The Macmil- 
lan Co., N. Y., 1901) is indispensable. 

B. Concordances. Concordances are of two types; 
(1) verbal, that is, lists of Scripture references by 
key words alphabetically arranged and (2) analytical. 
Because of the fact that it gives the Hebrew and 
Greek equivalents of the English words (e. g., under 
the verb "answer," seven Hebrew and four Greek 
words are treated). "Young's Analytical Concord- 
ance" (Edinburgh, 1880) is one of the most useful. 
A work along the same line on the basis of the Re- 
vised Version is imperatively needed. 

C. Apocryphal Texts. Every student should have 
a copy of the Old Testament Apocrypha and the so- 
called Pseudepigraphia. A good working edition is 
that contained in "Lange's Commentary" (Scrib- 
ners, 1901). In this work the Apocryphal books are 
translated and accompanied with full critical notes. 

207 



APPENDIX 



The Pseudepigraphia are described in the Appendix. 
The volume also contains a fine historical discussion 
of the Persian and Greek periods of Jewish history. 
The student who desires closer acquaintance with the 
more important Pseudepigraphia may consult the 
texts listed by Professor Biggs, "History of Jewish 
People During Maccabean and Roman Periods," 
Appendix VI. 

D. Josephus. This Jewish historian is practically 
our only authority for the Herodian Epoch and for 
much beside. The best edition is Shilleto's (London, 
1889-90). Any of the numberless reprints of Whis- 
ton's translation and notes will do. 

E. Commentaries. The legitimate uses of a com- 
mentary are three: (a) to aid in understanding diffi- 
cult points in the text; (b) to get the situation and 
historical background of a book; (c) to obtain general 
and comprehensive views of a book. I shall mention 
by name three commentaries for the purpose of 
indicating types: (1) For students sufficiently ad- 
vanced to use critical methods without slavishly 
adhering to another's results, "The International 
Critical Commentary" is indispensable; (2) For 
students less advanced, "The Cambridge Bible for 
Schools and Colleges" is particularly valuable; (3) 
For purposes of summary and review, "The Ex- 
positor's Bible Series" occupies the first place. No 
entire series (including the above) is to be recom- 
mended. The volumes vary in value widely. It 
is safe to say that commentaries should be consulted 
only after persistent independent work upon the 
Bible itself. The most valuable feature in any 
commentary is the apparatus which it provides the 
discriminating student. He should beware of accept- 
ing slavishly any man's private opinion. He should 
scrutinize closely the facts and the grounds of all opin- 
ions and judge for himself. The prevalent commen- 

208 



APPENDIX 



tary habit is fatal to independence of judgment and 
even to the workmanlike temper. 

F. Bible Dictionaries. Here again one would 
like to pause and disclaim any intention of en- 
dorsing the views of dictionary writers, en masse. 
In a Bible dictionary one looks for comprehensive 
and objective statements of illustrative facts — not 
private opinions. So far as critical views are con- 
cerned two statements are to be made: (a) Most 
students have a vast deal of private work of an ele- 
mentary nature to do before they have a right even 
to read critical discussions, to say nothing of adopting 
views of their own; (b) The logical method of pro- 
cedure is to study thoroughly the Bible as it is before 
attempting to deal with the source problem. At all 
times the student should have the means whereby 
to obtain views on both sides of disputed questions. 
Method should always be distinguished from results. 

(a) The "Hastings Dictionary of the Bible" 
(Scribners) in two separate publications, in five 
volumes and also in one, furnishes the greatest 
amount of available material. In connection with 
these, the one-volume dictionary by Prof. John D. 
Davis should constantly be consulted. The "Hast- 
ings Dictionary of Christ and the Gospels" is 
particularly valuable. 

G. Histories: 

1. General Histories: 

(a) "History for Ready Reference" 
(Larned, published in five volumes by 
C. A. Nichols Co., Philadelphia, 1895). 
This work is in alphabetical or cyclo- 
paedic form. 

(b) "A Short History of Ancient Peoples" 
(R. Souttar, Hodder and Stoughton, 

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1903). This book is for continuous 
reading and is arranged according to 
nationalities and chronologically. 

2. Histories of Egypt: 

(a) "A History of Egypt" by Professor 
Breasted (Scribners, 1905). A monu- 
mental work based upon the original 
sources. 

(b) A shorter history by the same author 
forms one of the "Scribner's Series for 
Bible Students." 

3. Histories of Assyria and Babylonia: 

(a) "History of Assyria and Babylonia" 
R. W. Rogers (2 vols., Eaton and Mains, 
1901). 

(b) "A History of the Babylonians and 
Assyrians," 1 vol., Professor Goodspeed 
in Series for Bible Students. 

4. History of Persia — see "Book of Twelve 

Prophets" ("Expositor's Bible Series") 
Vol. II, Ch. xv for literature and discus- 
sion. 

5. Histories of Greece: 

(a) "History of Greece" by George Grote 
(12 vols., reprint from London edition by 
Harper and Brothers, New York.) This 
history covers from early times to the 
end of the generation contemporary with 
Alexander the Great. 

(b) "Greek Life and Thought from Death 
of Alexander to Roman Conquest," by 
J. P. Mahaffy (Macmillan, 1896). 

(c) "History of Greece," by Victor Duruy 
(Imperial edition, 8 vols., Estes and 
Lauriat, Boston, 1892). This vivid and 
inspiring work covers the entire history 
as two works mentioned above. 



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6. History of Rome: 

(a) " History of Rome," by Theodor Momm- 
sen (5 vols., Scribners, 1903). This work 
covers the history of Rome from early 
times to the establishment of the Empire. 

(b) "Roman Provinces," by same author 
(2 vols.). These volumes cover the 
Imperial period and deal with the Roman 
occupation of Palestine. 

7. History of Israel and the Nations: "His- 

tory, Prophecy and the Monuments," 
by J. F. McCurdy (3 vols., Macmillan 
1898, later edition in one volume). 

8. "History of Jewish People in the Time of 

Jesus Christ," by Emil Schlirer (5 vols., 
Scribners) . This exhaustive source book, 
an entire library in itself, overlaps the 
histories of Greece and Rome mentioned 
above (Schlirer begins with Antiochus 
Epiphanes) and treats the history, arch- 
aeology and literature of the Jewish people 
for the entire period. 

9. History and the Land of Palestine: 

(a) "Historical Geography of the Holy 
Land," by George Adam Smith (1 vol., 
A. C. Armstrong and Son, 6th ed., 1899). 

(b) "The Holy Land" by Fullylove and 
Kelman (A. & C. Black, London). 

For the relationship between the land and its 
history the former book is and is likely to remain the 
best. It may be supplemented by the author's two 
volumes on Jerusalem. The second book (b) is 
mentioned for its vivid portrayal of present day 
Palestine and for the light thrown upon the past by 
the conditions of to-day. 

It should be clearly understood that, with a few 

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exceptions, the books mentioned above are not in- 
tended nor fitted for easy continuous reading. They 
are primarily source-books, books of reference, store 
houses of facts. For purposes of review and contin- 
uous reading for general impressions, briefer, more 
succinct, more easily readable books should be ob- 
tained. The following are suggested as examples : 

(1) In the "Historical Series for Bible Students" 
(edited by Kent, published by Scribners) the suc- 
cessive periods of Hebrew History are treated in 
single volumes, with special reference to the external 
relationships of Israel and the nations. 

(2) "History of Greece" one volume, Myers; pub- 
lished by Ginn & Co. 

(3) "History of Rome," one volume, Botsford; 
Macmillan & Co. 

(4) Land of Israel, single volume treatises: 

(a) Prof. Robert Laird Stewart. Revell & Co. 

(b) Prof. Kent: "Biblical Geography and His- 
tory." Scribners. 

(c) Stapfer: "Palestine in the Time of Christ." 
Armstrongs. 

(d) Edersheim: "Life and Times of Jesus the 
Messiah," abridged edition, one volume. 
Longmans, Green & Co. 

This is a list of working tools — by way of indis- 
pensable instruments of Bible study for one who is 
not called upon to deal with the original languages. 
In the proper use of them no man need be ashamed. 

J. Word-study — A Hint as to the Proper Use of a 
Concordance 

From the view-point of one who aims at a personal 
mastery of the biblical material, the use of a con- 
cordance simply to find passages should be looked 
upon as a stepping-stone to better things. To know 

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the Bible thoroughly is to know its component parts 
in relationship to each other and to the whole. 
But, even for a mature and able student, a con- 
cordance has its uses, by way of saving time from 
the detailed labor of collection. At any rate, be- 
ginners should know how to use the concordance 
effectively. To relate this note to the discussion in 
the text we may consider briefly the word "holiness." 

A glance at "Young's Concordance" under Holi- 
ness, Holy, etc., reveals the fact that the division of 
topics and arrangement of passages is very much the 
same as in the well-known Hebrew and Greek Lexi- 
cons, illustrated above (see pp. 162-163) . The partic- 
ular point of the inquiry should always be kept in 
mind. In this case the stress of the search should 
be to present the material which illustrates the unique 
biblical meaning given to a widely used word having 
a common etymological significance. As elsewhere 
intimated the context in certain biblical passages 
indicates where the Bible rises above the general 
etymological level into a region of meanings peculiar 
to itself. In Exodus xix, 5 and 6 (Young, sub 
"holy" 2) we come upon the first definite clue which 
we are seeking. The passage says: "Now, therefore, 
if ye will obey my voice, indeed, and keep my cove- 
nant, then shall ye be mine own possession from 
among all peoples; for all the earth is mine; and 
ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests and a holy 
nation." Etymologically this term simply means — a 
nation separate, in the same sense in which every 
person or thing dedicated to deity is separate, to 
Jehovah. But since this separateness is condi- 
tioned upon obedience to Jehovah's voice of command 
we are given as a part of the immediate context 
(Ch. xx) the Decalogue or Ten Commandments. 
This fundamental law is the moral content of the 
covenant relationship and the explication of the term 

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"holy." In this one passage by a single leap we 
escape from the bonds of etymological uniformity 
into the true atmosphere of biblical teaching as to 
holiness. In Leviticus (Ch. xx) this same experience 
is repeated. The context is partly ritualistic but 
the underlying symbolism of the ritual is unfolded in 
terms of the organic covenant law that is the Deca- 
logue applied to specific acts (vs. 2, 9, 10, etc.). 
No one could possibly be unaware that "Sanctify 
yourselves, therefore, and be ye holy; for I am Jehovah 
your God," has a positive moral meaning as well as 
a natural and primitive religious significance. 
Israel's religion was moralized to the very core by this 
moral unfolding and application of the term "holy" 
(cf. Numbers xv, 37-40). It is quite evident that 
after the clear leading of these passages, the rest of 
our way is comparatively simple. Wherever one 
finds in the Bible, "holy" or its cognates whether 
in the Old Testament or the New, whether in the 
Psalms or Wisdom Literature or Gospels the mean- 
ing is everywhere fundamentally the same. God 
as God only is holy in the absolute sense, for He alone 
possesses the perfection of moral being. They who 
belong to God by self-dedication belong to Himself 
also in moral likeness for they share His life. The 
author of Proverbs (ix, 10) says, "Knowledge of the 
Holy One is understanding," and the author of 
Hebrews (xn, 10) says that God disciplines us "that 
we may be partakers of His holiness," and both of 
them mean the same thing. It will be seen from 
this brief treatment of a single word that by using 
great words and studying them in their context the 
organizing ideas of the Bible in their historic con- 
nections and progressive unfolding are accessible. 
But, to repeat, texts are not to be collected aimlessly 
nor to be interpreted apart from their setting. This 
is to "darken counsel by words without knowledge." 



214 



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